MasukRonanThe moment she turned toward the door, I knew she was going to run from it.Not physically.Not fear.But avoidance.The war room was an excuse.It always would be.“Where are you going?” Caelan’s voice came first, his hand closing around her wrist before she made it more than a step.She glanced back at him, still catching her breath from everything that had just shifted between us. “The war room,” she said, like it was obvious. Like that was still the priority.It wasn’t.Not anymore.Caelan didn’t let her go.“That can wait.”There was something different in his tone now—less restrained, less careful—and I felt it immediately. Not as a threat. Not as something to push back against.As alignment.He stepped closer, pulling her back toward him, his grip firm enough to stop her without hurting her.“I spent weeks thinking I’d lost you,” he said, his voice lower now, roughened by something real. “Then I find you again and learn you were already mated—”His hand slid from her wris
EliraNo one moved right away, and that stillness stretched long enough to feel intentional rather than uncertain, as if all three of us understood that something had just shifted and none of us were willing to be the first to break it.I could still feel the place where Caelan’s hand had been, the warmth of it lingering beneath my skin in a way that didn’t quite fade with the light, and that alone made it harder to pretend what had just happened was nothing.“What was that?” Caelan asked again, his voice quieter now, more controlled, though the confusion hadn’t left it. “That’s the second time…”He didn’t finish, but he didn’t need to. The question was already there, fully formed, hanging between us.I didn’t answer.Not because I didn’t want to—but because I couldn’t bring myself to say it first. Because the only person in the room who already knew hadn’t said a word yet, and that silence carried more weight than anything I could have offered.I turned.Ronan hadn’t moved from where
EliraThe door closed behind us with a soft, final click, and the shift was immediate.The world quieted.Not completely—this place would never truly be silent—but the constant pressure that had followed me through every corridor, every room, every moment I had spent here under Ash’s watch… it was gone. No eyes lingered at the edges of my awareness. No invisible weight pressed against my thoughts, shaping them, guiding them.For the first time since I had been brought here, the space felt like it belonged to me.I turned slowly, taking it in again—not as something curated for me, not as something I had been placed inside, but as something I could now see clearly.My chambers.Ronan stepped in behind me, his boots quiet against the stone, his presence grounding in a way that settled something deep in my chest. I felt his gaze before I saw it, sweeping across the room with a sharpness that missed nothing. Once. Then again, slower, more deliberate.“…okay,” he said finally, a faint edge
RonanThe room hadn’t settled.Even with Ash down, even with Elira standing beside me—alive, whole, herself again—the air still carried the tension of something unfinished. Power didn’t just vanish because a blade found a heart. Not here. Not in a place like this.I let the silence stretch for a moment longer before stepping forward, drawing everyone’s attention back to something practical.“I know we all want to get out of here,” I said, my voice carrying easily through the chamber, “but that’s not happening yet.”Everyone shifted at that, exhaustion finally catching up now that the immediate threat had passed.“We didn’t come through that labyrinth untouched,” I continued. “Some of the men were injured. Everyone is still standing because of her,” I added, nodding slightly toward Elira, “but that doesn’t mean we’re ready to move again.”No one argued.They didn’t have the energy to.“And more importantly,” I went on, “this place doesn’t stabilize itself. Ash is gone, which means ever
EliraThe silence that followed my words felt heavier than anything we had faced in the labyrinth.“The Age of Shadows,” Caelan repeated, his tone thoughtful rather than alarmed, like he was turning the phrase over in his mind, testing its weight. “That sounds… familiar.”“It is,” I said slowly.I frowned, trying to grasp the edge of the memory that had just surfaced. It wasn’t new—not really—but it had been buried beneath everything else Ash had stripped from me. Now that the fog had cleared, it came back in fragments, like something half-remembered from a dream.“I’ve heard that before,” I murmured.My thoughts sharpened, pulling the memory forward.“When the Moon Goddess—”“Your mother,” Brad cut in immediately.I blinked at him.“…visited us in our dreams,” I continued, choosing to ignore that for the moment, “when we broke the curse…”The room seemed to still again, everyone listening now.“She told us something,” I said, the words forming more clearly the more I reached for them
EliraThe moment I collided with him, everything else fell away.Ronan’s arms came around me hard—tight, unyielding, like he was anchoring me in place, like if he loosened his grip for even a second I might disappear again. The force of it knocked the breath from my lungs, but I didn’t fight it.I held on just as tightly.For a second—just one—I let myself sink into it.Into him.The bond between us surged, no longer muted, no longer dulled by whatever had been done to me. It wrapped around my chest, warm and fierce and alive, grounding me in a way nothing else in this place ever had.His hand came up to cradle the back of my head, pressing me closer before he pulled back just enough to look at me.Then he kissed me.It wasn’t gentle.It wasn’t slow.It was desperate.Relief and anger and something dangerously close to fear all tangled together in the way his mouth moved against mine, like he needed to prove I was real, that I was here, that I hadn’t been lost to him after all.When h
EliraRonan didn’t move.But I still watched him like he might. Like at any second his eyes would crack open and pin me to the floor, full of some unreadable storm I’d have to weather all over again.The silence settled thick around me once Wallace left. The cabin creaked softly as the wind outside
EliraThe cabin creaked as the sun climbed over the horizon, casting long stripes of light across the floor. I sat cross-legged near the hearth, rewrapping Ronan’s chest as gently as I could. His breathing stayed steady. Still unconscious, but strong. I’d take it.Wallace was outside making a perim
EliraI jolted awake, heart thudding.The fire had burned down to embers. The stew bowl was still in my lap, now cold and crusted. And Ronan—I scrambled up, nearly knocking the bowl to the floor.“Easy,” Wallace said from his corner. He was still awake, still alert, back against the wall like a st
EliraThe wind shifted.Ronan froze mid-step, his head jerking east, a low growl vibrating in his chest. My stomach dropped.“What is it?” I asked, already knowing I wouldn’t like the answer.“Inside. Now.”“But—”His glare sliced through me like a blade. “Inside. Now.”I didn’t argue again. I back







