Torn Novels & Stories

I screamed as my chest seared. My vision blurred. Flames raced up my arms, my neck, and my spine. The bond flipped like a blade in reverse, cutting from his soul back into mine. I fell to the ground. Hands spasming. My magic, trying to pull itself apart. And then— Thorne tackled me to the floor, muttering something in the Old Tongue. His voice cut through the fire. The bond pulsed once more— Then dimmed. Not broken. Not healed. Just… scarred.

REINA My scream tore through the apartment like shattered glass, echoing off the walls long after it left my throat. For one suffocating second, I couldn’t breathe. I stared at the vicious wound carved across Paolo’s side, raw, angry, and swollen. Thick, uneven stitches pulled the torn flesh together like some brutal attempt at sewing a broken doll. Deep purple bruising bloomed beneath his pale skin, spreading outward like spilled ink. Blood still seeped slowly from the edges.

For a split second, I couldn’t tell where the pain came from, couldn’t tell if I’d been hit. “Eve!” Gabriel’s voice broke through the ringing in my ears. He lunged forward, grabbing my arms, his hands slick with rain. “Talk to me—are you hit?” I blinked, trembling. “I—I don’t think so—” Then a groan cut through the storm. Sebastian stumbled back, hand pressed to his shoulder. Blood darkened his sleeve instantly, seeping through his jacket. “Sebastian!” I gasped, catching him before he could fall.

It moved, coiled, and circulated through him like blood. One horn had been broken near the base long ago, the fracture jagged but healed, the surface scarred and darkened where it had fused imperfectly. The other curved backward in a brutal sweep, thicker than Apollo’s and ridged along its length, as though designed less for ceremony and more for impact.

Before I could react, the car flipped violently and slammed into a tree. In that instant, I had instinctively shielded her with my body. She was protected by the airbag and only suffered minor scrapes. On the other hand, not only did my brakes fail, but my seatbelt also snapped. Even my airbag malfunctioned. Shards of broken glass pierced straight into my heart. My vision slowly went dark. Yet at that moment, she whispered something I could not believe into my ear. “Carol, you’ve always fought me for everything since we were kids. I’ve had enough of you!

I suppose I wanted to believe there was some kind of limit to how cruel another person could be. Tori finished patching up Zayne and washed the remaining blood from his face and torso. His skin was angry and red, puckered around the slashes on his chest. The stitches would seal the wounds and help them heal just a bit faster and neater. I paid close attention to how Tori moved, with sure hands that lacked even the slightest tremble.

And the dual resonance—both threads of it—present in my chest as it would always be, the one deep and settled and the other changed and steady, both of them real, both of them mine. I was no longer torn.

Soren was unconscious, which I now realized was a mercy, because something had burnt his face like acid. His left eye was completely swollen shut, something thin and watery seeping out of the corners. His right cheek had been singed just like Kane’s arm, and there was an ugly line of burnt flesh all the way down to his collarbone, like something acidic had dripped down his neck.

I put the no through the bond and through my own blood until the flicker broke. The remaining clean unit saw the piece leave the center and changed purpose at once. They stopped trying to seat it. They tried to take it back and take me with it. “Out,” I said. “Now.” Pell covered the first retreat cut. Bren and Tamsin fell in from the right, Tamsin bleeding at the temple, Bren limping and still moving. Ronan stayed between me and the center scar with the wrapped piece now in both our hands, heavy and wrong even through the cloth.

I lunged for her. The force of the break knocked us both to our knees. My ears rang. My wolf clawed to the surface, snarling in confusion, and Kael’s voice broke through my skull, low and ragged : “The world is bleeding, Dorian - she tore the weave open-” Tessa. She was still upright, barely. The dagger clattered from her hand, the same weapon now dull and spent, like it had given everything. I grabbed her, anchoring her to me as the Rift began to expand. Not just grow. Unfold.