All Chapters of Bound by Crystals and Shadows: Chapter 61 - Chapter 70

Corin spent days making me this gift.The thought alone still hadn’t fully settled in my chest as I carefully lifted the sword from the wooden box, my fingers tightening slightly around the hilt as I tested the weight of it in my hand. It was heavier than I expected, solid and balanced, the kind of weight that demanded respect rather than fear. The golden vines wrapped naturally around my grip, as if they had been shaped for my hand alone, and the soft pink crystals caught the morning light spilling into the room, glowing faintly as if something inside them was alive.I turned the blade slightly, watching how the light danced across the metal, how the delicate details shifted with every movement. This wasn’t just a weapon. It was something crafted with care, with intention, with feeling. Corin hadn’t just made me a sword—he had made something that belonged to me.A slow breath left my chest as something warm settled deep inside me, pushing past the lingering confusion and frustration

Something in him changed then, not in his stance, not in his movements, but in the way he looked at me. The distance that had been there for days, the restraint he had been holding onto so tightly, it wasn’t there anymore. When he moved again, it wasn’t to test me. It was to meet me. Our blades clashed once more, but this time it wasn’t about pushing each other back. It wasn’t about proving who was stronger or faster. It was controlled, deliberate, each of us matching the other without falling behind. The rhythm of it felt different, steadier, like we had both stepped into the same pace without needing to force it. I adjusted with him, moving without thinking, trusting the way my body responded, trusting the sword in my hand. There was no panic, no hesitation, no need to catch up. For the first time since I started training, I wasn’t behind. Corin felt it too. I saw it in the way his movements shifted, not holding back, but not overpowering either. He wasn’t treating me l

“You finally said it,” I whispered, my voice softer now, but steadier than before.His grip on me tightened slightly, like he wasn’t willing to take it back, like saying it had settled something in him as much as it had in me.“I should have said it sooner,” he admitted quietly.As I held onto him, something else began to stir beneath my skin.At first, it was a faint warmth, soft. Barely even noticeable.But it didn’t stay that way.It spread slowly, moving through me like a quiet current, seeping into every part of my body until it felt like I was filled with something I couldn’t see, something that had been there all along but had never fully surfaced. My fingers tightened slightly against him as the feeling grew, not painful, not overwhelming, just… present.It felt like something inside me was finally free.The world around us seemed to blur at the edges, the space between us becoming the only thing that felt real as the warmth deepened, wrapping around me, around us, like it be

“Yes,” Garrick said. “They could welcome you… or they could try to control you before you have the chance to take back what’s yours.”Take back.The words didn’t sit right with me.I didn’t feel like someone returning to claim a throne. I felt like someone who had just found out she was part of something much bigger than she understood.“They’ve built their own way of ruling,” I said slowly. “If I step into that… I don’t even know what I’d be stepping into.”“Exactly,” Rhys said. “And neither do they. That’s what makes you dangerous.”Dangerous.The word echoed in my mind.I tightened my grip around my sword, feeling the faintest trace of that warmth still buried beneath my skin.A few days.That’s all Garrick had given me, a few agonising days before they came.Before they saw me.Before they decided what I was to them… a threat, or a weapon they could use at their disposal.I lifted my gaze, looking out across the training grounds, but my thoughts weren’t there anymore. They were al

The entire clearing seemed to breathe with it. Soft light glowed along the bark, running in thin lines that reminded me of the veins on leaves, but this felt older. Deeper. Like the source of something that had existed long before the crystal itself. Nymphs stood around the base of the tree, more than I thought there were. They were already gathered in a wide circle, their bodies still. Their clothing blended into the forest so naturally, for a moment it looked like the clearing itself had come alive. Their eyes turned toward me the second we stepped forward. Every single one of them. My chest tightened. “This is where it happens,” Katana said softly, though her voice carried clearly through the space. I swallowed, my gaze lifting again to the tree, trying to take it all in, but it felt impossible. The closer I looked, the more it felt like my nerves were going to give in. Everyone’s staires didn’t help either. Corin’s hand brushed against mine, a soft gesture that he