LOGINLEVI’S POVThe floor gives beneath me before I can adjust, and the shift is so controlled it feels intentional rather than structural, like something has been waiting for this exact moment. One second I am moving forward, following the sharp return of the bond, and the next there is nothing under my feet and I am already dropping.I twist mid-fall on instinct, reaching for the wall, but the surface is smooth, carved without a single edge to catch, leaving me nothing to slow the descent. The bond slams back into place as I fall, hard enough to knock the air from my chest, and this time it is not distant or muted.Ray is right there.Close enough that I feel it like impact before I even hit the ground.I land hard, roll through it, and push myself up immediately, ignoring the brief disorientation as I take in everything around me. The space closes in quickly, and it becomes clear within seconds that this is not damage from a collapse but something constructed with purpose.The walls cur
RAY’S POVSilence settled around me in a way that didn’t feel natural.It wasn’t the quiet of distance or isolation, it felt controlled, sealed, as if the space had been cut away from everything outside it and left to exist on its own. No wind moved through it, no sound carried, and the bond was completely absent.That was what made me stay still.I lay where they had dropped me, breathing slow and steady, letting awareness return gradually instead of forcing it, because forcing it meant missing something. Metal pressed tight around my wrists, cold and deliberate, secured to something beneath me that didn’t shift when I tested it. My ankles were held the same way, not rushed, not careless, every detail measured.This wasn’t a mistake, it had been prepared.Memory returned in pieces.The corridor, the markings, the moment the air shifted just before everything changed, then the impact, clean and precise, timed perfectly with the second the bond opened.After that, nothing.I exhaled sl
LEVI’S POVThe west wing was still burning when we forced a second entry point, and although containment teams had slowed the spread, the damage was already done. Smoke pressed through the corridor, heat clung to the walls, and the collapse had sealed the path where Ray had fallen.The bond remained absent, not distant or weakened, but completely gone.I stood at the edge of the breach, studying the structure and calculating what would hold and what would fail next, while Daniel and the others waited behind me in silence, already aware that this was no longer just about the fire.It was about what had been taken.“Report.”“Outer sections are stable,” Daniel said. “Inner structure is compromised. We can push through, but not for long.”“How long?”“A few minutes.”That was enough.I stepped forward, but Daniel caught my arm, his grip firm.“If this collapses again—”“It won’t matter.”He held my gaze for a moment, then released me.We moved.The new path cut through fractured stone an
RAY’S POVConsciousness returned slowly, piece by piece, with heat pressing in first, followed by the weight of debris and the sharp taste of smoke at the back of my throat.I stayed still at first, letting instinct take over and forcing myself to listen before I moved. The structure around me creaked under pressure, unstable but not collapsing yet, and something heavy pinned part of my lower body. When I tried to shift, pain cut sharply through my side, enough to pull a breath from me.I was alive.That was enough.I forced my eyes open and took in what I could through the smoke. Flames had not fully reached this section, but the blast had thrown me deeper into the archive wing, past the main burn line.I was cut off.The bond was gone, not distant or quiet but completely absent, and that emptiness hit harder than the pain in my body. For a moment, everything else faded as I tried to reach for it, to find even the smallest trace.Nothing answered.I pushed that aside and focused on w
LEVI’S POVA second explosion struck before the first had fully settled, driving a harder shock through the floor as the walls trembled and dust fell from above.The compound no longer felt stable. It felt compromised.Guards reacted immediately, sealing exits and calling positions, but control was already slipping. This was not an external attack. Whatever had started was already inside and spreading fast.Ray did not move.His attention remained fixed on the man chained to the wall, as if nothing else existed.Tension tightened through the bond, stretched and unstable, reacting to something neither of us could name yet.Daniel stepped closer, breathing harder than usual but steady enough to report. Multiple blast points had been confirmed inside the compound, and nothing about it suggested an accident.That settled it.This was planned.I closed the distance and forced the prisoner’s head up, making him meet my eyes. His breathing was uneven, but the faint smile remained.“Who else
RAY’S POVI woke up with the bond already wrong.It wasn’t quiet or steady, but tight in my chest like something had wrapped around it and pulled hard. It didn’t ease when I shifted, and it didn’t settle when I tried to breathe through it.Levi was still asleep beside me.That didn’t happen often.I stayed still for a moment, watching him, waiting for the feeling to pass, but it didn’t. If anything, it pressed deeper, sharper, like it was trying to pull my attention toward something I couldn’t see yet.I got up without waking him and left the room.The compound was quiet, caught between night and morning, and I headed straight for the training yard. Movement usually helped me think. It gave me something to control.This didn’t feel like something I could control.I picked up a staff and moved through the first strike without hesitation, letting instinct take over. I turned, stepped, and struck again, faster, harder, but the rhythm didn’t ground me the way it usually did.The bond stay
RAY'S POVI woke before Levi.He was on his side facing me. Completely out. No composure. No performance. Just a man who had been running on empty for four years and had finally put it down.I didn't move.Lay there and thought about the council hearing. About Victor secured two floors below us. Ab
LEVI'S POVWe walked back through the forest in the early afternoon light.Victor secured between Daniel's wolves. Aaron carrying the document. Chris moving quietly at the rear.Ray beside me.His shoulder against mine. Neither of us talking. The kind of silence that had stopped being uncomfortable
RAY'S POV"Move," Victor said."No," I said.We looked at each other across the clearing.Victor was calm. Patient. Seven years of waiting settled across his face like something that had already decided its own outcome."Ray." Levi's voice behind me. "Step back.""No.""Ray—""He needs us separated
RAY’S POVThe training yard was cleared by midnight.Victor's wolves secured. Compound locked. Every entry point sealed.Daniel pulled me aside while Levi spoke to his wolves."The fourth step," he said quietly. "What does that mean.""It means Victor thinks he knows where we're going," I said. "Th







