Chapter 21 - Bonds It had been a week since we started looking for Ryuu. Mildred and Hunter had focused a lot of their energy on location spells. They had just left yesterday to travel to the Fae realm. They were under strict orders to remain unseen. To avoid potentially alerting my parents of my location. While they worked there, picking up any traces of the magic she left behind. Garren and I worked on our end, preparing strategies to try and draw her to us once we were close enough to her last location. Garren had explained that it was easier to draw her to us than look for her. With us being closer to the last place with the strongest remnants of her magic, we would be able to use it to call to her. It was more of a theory than anything, but Garren and the others believed it was possible to do with our magic combined. As they said a few times, power was drawn to power, and she couldn't resist the urge to sneak a peek at who was trying to call her. After the tense discussion with

Chapter 23 - Compromise  Imelda’s POV Everything happened so fast. Balthazar charged towards Garren. Though he was built like a giant, Balthazar knocked him to the ground with ease. I rolled out of the way just before Garren tossed him through the air, making him slam into the desk. I was expecting magic, fire, pure power. But instead, the two men fought like humans hitting each other with nothing but their fists. Beating each other bloody. My frozen tongue finally thawed as I felt the pain across my jaw and then my ribs and back. After fighting the bond and being so far away, it crashed into me with a vengeance. Unfortunately, they were both too consumed with hatred for one another to notice what was happening. I clutched my stomach as the jolt of pain rushed through me. I ground my teeth as I forced myself through the pain, standing up. 

Chapter 25 - Love “Remember what I said. Once we get there, we will be out in the open. We must hurry on our horses and get for cover. The giants are cruel beings, and the monsters they are tasked with keeping from ever escaping their realms are even more ruthless.” Garren instructed as we all gathered around him. My hand tightened around my horse's reins, my knuckles turning white. Reaching to grip his shoulder with the other. I felt him tense as Balthazar rested his hand on his forearm. Mildred and Hunter following after him.  “Don’t let go and ready your feet for the drop.” We all nodded. I shifted my feet apart, bending my knees to prepare for the impact. Garren opened the map switching it to the realm of the giant's.  “Dalir.” As the words left his lips, the world around us began

Chapter 27 - Mates Balthazar’s POV  I couldn’t get the way she felt against me as she slept out of my head. Every thought seemed to circle back to her head, resting on my chest. The sigh of relief she gave when I held her tight made my heart race, the warmth of her body matching mine. When I finally pushed the thoughts of her away. It was as if Terra was taunting me herself. The breeze would shift, and the smell of vanilla and chocolate would find a way to me, bringing them all back.  The ride through the forest was only a temporary distraction. Once we made camp, I had nothing to keep my mind or hands busy. My thoughts kept pushing me to be near her. Talk to her, do anything to get her attention. I felt like a kid trying to earn the love of a pet. No, a pet wasn't a good comparison or was it. I don’t know an

Chapter 29 - Lost   Imelda’s POV   Everything hurt. I felt as though I was the dummy used for sparring classes. Just breathing causes a great deal of discomfort. But the heat, the unbearable heat, was gone. I no longer felt like my skin was on fire. My body felt like it was made of lead, and it ached like I was the focus of target practice, but that all meant one thing. One thing that allowed me a chance to endure the aches and the heaviness. It meant I was alive and that eventually, I would be able to continue on with what I had set out to do.    I could hear a soft snore beside me and the shuffling of footsteps on a wooden floor that sounded far away. My senses slowly began to come back to me. A new realization setting in, one I wasn’t sure I wanted to see. There wasn’t the sound of a fire burning or the sound of the trees swaying in the breeze. Instead, the ground beneat