All Chapters of The Binding: Chapter 41 - Chapter 50

The Spark and the Smoke“Just what in the fresh hell was that?” “Ingrid May!” Jana snapped, effectively quieting her.“No, she’s okay..” I whispered, voice a little raw. “I-I don’t know what it was. I just knew that I couldn’t let anyone hurt you guys, or the pack. That was the only thing going through my head.”Eirik moved closer, his arm wrapping around my waist and pulling me into his side. “It wasn’t just power,” he said quietly, “It was intention. Purpose.”“I didn’t plan it,” I added, looking down at my hands, while they faintly tingled. “I didn’t call it, it just answered me.”“You were the call,” Leif said, stepping forward. “That kind of magic doesn’t come from just summoning, it comes from recognition. Something ancient saw you and responded to help.”Ingrid crossed her arms, clearly still unsettled by the whole thing. “Well, whatever it was scared the hell out of The hunt.. I’ve never seen anything like that, and I’ve seen a lot.”There was a long beat of silence, broken o

The Other Side of the FlameMy eyes fluttered open, slow and confused, as if I’d surfaced from a dream that I couldn’t remember but still ached from. The room was quiet–almost too quiet–and I lay still, trying to understand why my body felt so off. I’d expected to feel pain, but the only thing I felt was the absence of it. If that make sense?The ceiling beam above me was old, carved faintly with runes that I don’t recognize. Sunlight filtered through gauzy curtains, warm against my skin. A flannel blanket covered me, soft and worn in different places. The scent of pine, smoke and something distinctly Eirik lingered all around me but he was nowhere to be found.Then I noticed the IV, a plastic tube taped to my left arm with a clear liquid being injected right into my veins.I sat up too fast. My vision blurring for a second and then sharpening. I was in Eirik’s bed at his house, the ache in my body fading quickly, replaced by a strange hum under my skin, like something electric slept

The Pulse Between UsThe forest swallowed my footsteps, but the pulse in my hand guided me like a thread pulled taut. Each step was heavier than the last–not from exhaustion, but something deeper. Like the glyph itself knew what I was walking towards and was trying to warn me against it. But I didn’t, I couldn’t. The mark in my palm thrummed with a magnetic ache, and behind it, deeper still, Elias called to me. Or maybe I was calling him.Eirik flanked me, eyes constantly scanning the horizon, tension coiled tightly in his shoulders.Ingrid moved beside him, quieter than usual, but watchful, her fingers twitching like they were ready to summon lightning at any moment. “You’re sure that it’s him?” eirik asked for a third time, his voice low and urgent.I didn’t answer, just nodded and kept walking. Because it wasn’t just him, something else was pulling me too–something familiar, but not the same. The scent of blood hit me before the sight of it did. Eirik urged forward, but I threw a

Between the Lines of FireThe walk back felt longer than the journey there, like the forest itself resisted letting us leave now that it knew our names.Branches brushed along our shoulders like whispered warnings, and the glyph in my hand had finally quieted, though the heat it left behind still pulsed beneath my skin like an aftershock. Elias moved slower than before, his head low, jaw clenched. I could feel his guilt pressing in onhim–I’m sure he thought sealing the girl had done something irreversible, and maybe it had. But I couldn't bring myself to regret sealing her back until we knew something more. Eirik walked close by my side, tense and silent, like he didn’t trust the woods not to change their minds. We broke through the final lines of trees into the clearing, just beyond the wards–and found her already waiting there.Gran.She stood in the middle of the path, arms crossed, her eyes flickering to each of us in turn. Her gaze lingered the longest on Elias, like she saw so

The Glyph's WarningThe crow was long gone by the time we left. The rain had stopped, but the air hadn’t cleared–it clung to the skin like something unspoken. The glyph in my hand hadn’t flared again, but it stirred. Not sharp, not burning, just… letting me know it was still there.Eirik didn’t ask questions as we moved hurriedly through the trees. He knew I'd explain what I could whenever I was ready, and I was grateful for that.The silence between us wasn’t cold–it was steady. Anchoring.The cabin I was led to looked exactly like Gran’s home right next to Eirik’s house, but the energy was different, off.The door opened before I even touched the handle. She didn’t greet us.“Come in,” she said, voice low. “I assume you got my message.”We stepped inside. The cabin was dark, lit only by oil lamps and the red-gold flicker of the hearth. The scent of herbs and something iron-sweet curled through the air.Elias sat cross-legged near the fire, his face pale, dark circles under his eyes.