LOGINHi my loves 💜 I’m taking a short holiday break from posting to rest, recharge, and spend time with family. Thank you so much for all the support, comments, and love you’ve shown this story—it truly means everything to me.I’ll be back with new chapters after the holidays. Until then, please take care of yourselves and enjoy the season ✨
Kael felt her fear before he felt the walls.It came through the bond like a blade dragged across his ribs—sharp, panicked, contained. Not fading. Not gone.Caged.His vision burned silver as the Covenant corridor split open beneath his magic.Stone cracked.Runes screamed.The dampening field flared once—then shattered as shadow surged outward from him, devouring the light like it had been waiting to do exactly this.Kael didn’t slow.Didn’t think.Didn’t breathe.Every step forward was fueled by one singular truth:They took her.A pair of Covenant sentries appeared ahead—white armor, silver inlays, weapons already raised.“Stand down!” one shouted. “You are entering restricted—”Kael lifted his hand.Shadow erupted.The hallway imploded.When the dust cleared, both men were embedded in the walls, unconscious, their weapons twisted into useless scrap.Kael walked through the wreckage without looking back.The bond pulled him left—hard.He followed.Pain lanced through his chest as a
Aria woke to cold.Not the kind that bit or burned, but the kind that muted everything—sound, sensation, even thought.Her cheek rested against stone, smooth like glass and humming faintly under her skin.A pulse.A beat.Not hers.She exhaled shakily as memory slammed back:The forest.Kael’s roar.Hands dragging her.Light splitting around her body.The bond screaming—then nothing.Aria pushed herself upright.Chains rattled.She froze.Her wrists were wrapped in metal cuffs engraved with thin lines of silver—not pretty, not ornamental.Restraints designed to dull magic, to sever her connection to anything outside this room.Outside of him.Her chest tightened.The bond felt—wrong.Faint.Muted.Like someone had wrapped thick hands around her heart and was slowly squeezing.She pressed a fist to her sternum.“Kael…” she whispered.The room didn’t echo.Of course it didn’t.This place wasn’t built to let anything escape.A voice drifted through the quiet like silk sliding over sk
The rain didn’t ease. It only grew heavier—fat droplets pounding the leaves in a steady, unbroken roar that drowned out almost everything. Almost. Because Aria still heard it. That soft hum. That pulse. That whisper of power moving through the air like a blade dragged across silk. Kael must have felt it too. His shadows coiled instinctively around her, tightening like armor as they pushed deeper into the forest. Every step they took away from the awakened shard seemed only to sharpen the presence stalking them. Varuun walked several paces behind, unusually silent, eyes glowing faintly beneath his hood. “We’re being followed,” Aria whispered. Kael didn’t look back. “No. She’s not following.” His jaw clenched. “She’s already here.” The clearing ahead of them split open with light. Not white. Not gold. But the cold, luminous blue of crackled moonstone. Aria’s breath stilled. Kael’s grip on her waist hardened. Varuun sighed. “Well. She’s in a dramatic mood today.” A fig
The forest trembled in the aftermath. Rain pelted the leaves in relentless sheets, and the wind carried the faint, eerie hum of the fully awakened shard. Kael’s shadowed aura flared around him like a living armor, coiling protectively around Aria even as they tried to catch their breath. “Selene knows,” Aria whispered, voice tight. “She’ll come.” Kael’s jaw clenched, fists curling at his sides. His eyes, molten with gold and ember, scanned the trembling forest. “Then we won’t be waiting for her.” A flicker of movement caught Aria’s eye. The shard, now fully active, pulsed like a heartbeat in the clearing, golden veins tracing the cracks that had spread across its surface. Threads of energy spiraled outward, stretching into the trees, as if testing the boundaries of the world around it. Varuun stepped closer, his cloak drenched, hood falling back to reveal an expression both grim and fascinated. “It’s alive… and it’s hungry. That little pulse you just anchored gave it… direction.”
Kael slammed into the Echo with enough force to crack the ground beneath them, shadow bursting outward like a shockwave. But the creature—wearing Aria’s stolen face—absorbed the entire impact without so much as blinking. It didn’t stumble. It didn’t reel. It simply placed a shimmering hand on Kael’s chest and whispered: “You are in my way.” Kael choked on his own breath as if invisible fingers tightened around his lungs. Shadows tore free from his body without his command, siphoned out of him like smoke sucked into a vacuum. “Kael!” Aria screamed. He staggered backward, knees hitting the dirt, chest heaving. His vision blurred. Varuun let out a long exhale. “Well, that answers one question. It’s already connected to her.” Aria spun toward him. “Connected how?!” He gestured lazily at the Echo. “That thing is feeding off your bond with Kael. Like a parasite drawing power straight from the source.” Aria’s blood froze. Kael pushed himself upright, dark magic sparking viole







