Mira's POV
The light swallows everything.
My hands are pressed against the Dark One's corrupted flesh, and power pours out of me like a river breaking through a dam. It's not like healing the dragon—that was focused, controlled. This is a FLOOD.
The creature screams. The sound is so horrible it makes my ears ring, but I don't let go. Can't let go. My instincts are screaming at me to push MORE power, to burn away every bit of darkness infecting this thing.
Through the blinding light, I feel the corruption fighting back. It writhes under my palms like something alive, trying to burrow INTO me instead. Cold spreads up my arms. My vision flickers.
It's trying to corrupt ME.
"Mira, let go!" Kael's voice sounds far away. "You're taking in too much darkness!"
But I can't stop. Won't stop. Because underneath all that corruption, I can feel something else. Something that's suffering. Something that used to be alive before the darkness twisted it into a monster.
It reminds me of myself. Of what Marcus tried to turn me into—something broken and wrong and not-me-anymore.
I survived that darkness. This creature can too.
"BURN," I whisper, and push everything I have into my hands.
The golden light explodes outward in a shockwave. The Dark One's scream cuts off. The corruption evaporates like smoke in wind. For a second, the whole world is just pure, clean light.
Then it fades.
I stumble backward, gasping. My arms feel like lead. My vision swims with black spots.
The creature is still there. But it's changed.
It's smaller now—maybe the size of a horse instead of a house. The black, rotting flesh is gone, replaced by smooth gray stone. Its too-many eyes have closed. It looks like a statue of something ancient and peaceful.
"You turned it to stone," Draeven breathes in disbelief.
"No." I can barely talk. "I freed it. The corruption was eating it alive for centuries. Now it can rest."
My legs give out. This time, three sets of hands catch me at once—Kael, Zephyr, and even Draeven. They're arguing over who should carry me, their voices mixing into noise.
"Stop fighting," I mumble. "So tired of fighting..."
Everything goes black.
I wake up moving.
Someone's carrying me—Kael, I think, based on the white fur I can see. The forest is rushing past. Other beasts run alongside us. I hear Zephyr's wings beating overhead. Draeven's darker shape moves through the shadows.
"She's awake," Kael says, his voice rumbling through his chest.
"Put me down," I try to say, but it comes out as a whisper.
"Not a chance. You nearly killed yourself back there." His arms tighten around me. "What were you THINKING? That creature could have consumed you!"
"But it didn't." I force my eyes fully open. "I saved it."
"You ABSORBED its corruption!" Kael's angry now. "I can see the black veins spreading up your arms. You took the darkness into yourself!"
I look down. He's right. Thin black lines snake under my skin from my palms to my elbows, pulsing faintly. They look like the opposite of my golden marks—a infection spreading through me.
Fear spikes through my exhaustion. "Am I... am I turning into one of them?"
"No." Draeven appears beside us, running to keep pace. "Your Lifebringer power is fighting it. But Kael's right—you took in too much. Your body needs time to purify the corruption from your own system."
"How much time?"
"Hours. Maybe days." Zephyr lands briefly, his golden eyes worried. "We need to get her somewhere safe to recover."
"The Dead Forest is closest," Draeven says.
"Absolutely not," Kael snarls. "She's already fighting corruption. Taking her INTO a corrupted forest is insane."
"The Dead Forest corruption is different," Draeven argues. "It's old. Dormant. It won't attack her like active darkness. And more importantly, the Dark Ones avoid it. Even they fear the ancient poison there."
"Or we fly to Sky Dominion," Zephyr suggests. "Three hours by wing. Our healers—"
"Can't do anything for Lifebringer corruption," Draeven interrupts. "Only she can heal herself. She just needs time and safety."
They keep arguing. Their voices fade into background noise as something else catches my attention.
The black veins are moving. Crawling further up my arms. And they're starting to whisper.
Faint voices, like static on a radio. They're saying things I can't quite make out. Promises? Threats? I can't tell.
"Guys?" My voice shakes. "The corruption is talking to me."
All three males freeze.
"What is it saying?" Kael demands.
"I don't know. I can't understand it. But it's getting louder." The whispers are definitely louder now. Insistent. "It wants something from me."
"We need to stop," Zephyr says urgently. "Now. Before it spreads further."
Kael sets me down carefully against a massive tree. All three males crowd around me, watching the black veins pulse and spread.
"Can you push it out?" Draeven asks. "Use your power to purify yourself?"
I try. I focus on my golden marks, willing them to glow, to burn away the darkness. But I'm so tired. The light flickers weakly and dies.
"I'm too drained," I gasp. "I used everything on that creature."
The whispers get LOUD. Suddenly I can understand them:
So tired. Rest. Let us in. We'll make the pain stop. We'll make everything stop. Just let go. Just surrender. Just—
"NO!" I scream, clutching my head. "Get out get out GET OUT!"
Kael grabs my face, forcing me to look at him. His ice-blue eyes lock onto mine. "Mira. Listen to my voice. Not theirs. MINE."
But the whispers are so loud now. So persuasive. And they're not wrong—I AM tired. Bone-deep exhausted. Wouldn't it be easier to just... stop fighting?
I fought so hard against Marcus. Fought to escape. Fought to survive dying. Fought to stay alive in this insane world. I'm so tired of fighting.
"Mira, stay with me," Kael orders. "That's the corruption talking. It's trying to break you."
"Maybe I want to break," I whisper. "Maybe I'm tired of being strong."
Zephyr kneels beside me. "You don't have to be strong right now. Let us be strong FOR you. That's what the alliance means."
"We've got you," Draeven adds quietly. "You're not alone in this fight anymore."
Their words cut through the whispers. I blink, focusing on their faces. Three males who barely know me, looking at me like I matter. Like losing me would hurt them.
When was the last time anyone looked at me like that?
The golden marks on my arms pulse once. Weak, but there. Fighting.
"Okay," I breathe. "Okay. I'll keep fighting. But you have to help me. I can't do this alone."
"Never alone," Kael promises.
The black veins suddenly SURGE up my arms, past my elbows, racing toward my heart.
I scream.
The whispers turn to shrieks: OURS OURS OURS—
"She's losing!" Zephyr shouts.
"We have to do something NOW," Draeven snarls.
Kael's eyes flash with desperate decision. "There's one way. But she has to consent."
"Consent to what?" I gasp as the corruption crawls up my shoulders.
"A mate bond," Kael says rapidly. "If I bond with you, my life force can feed your power. Give you the strength to fight."
"But mate bonds are permanent," Zephyr protests. "She can't make that choice while corrupted!"
"She'll DIE if we don't try!" Kael turns back to me. "Mira. Do you trust me?"
The corruption is at my neck now. Cold fingers wrapping around my throat. The whispers promise rest. Peace. An end to pain.
But Kael's eyes promise something else: life. Fighting. A future.
I barely know him. This is insane. Permanent bonds with a man—a WOLF—I just met?
Then again, I died and got reborn in an alien world. Insane is my new normal.
"Do it," I choke out.
Kael leans forward and presses his forehead to mine.
Power explodes between us—his wild and fierce, mine golden and desperate. They crash together like waves, mixing, binding, FUSING.
The mate bond snaps into place.
And the corruption SCREAMS.