Aria POV
My dorm room door slammed shut behind us, and I immediately activated every protection spell my father had taught me before he died. Blue light shimmered across the walls, sealing us inside a bubble of privacy where no one could hear or sense what happened within.
Marcus leaped from my arms the moment I set him down, putting distance between us. Through our bond, I felt his wariness, his anger, and underneath—a desperate need to understand what was happening to him.
"Explain," he demanded, his mental voice sharp. "Everything. Right now."
I collapsed onto my bed, exhaustion crashing over me. The seals burned like acid in my chest. Two days. Maybe less if I used any more power. The encounter with Kira had cost me precious time.
"What do you want to know first?" I asked.
"Start with why you chose me." Marcus paced in front of the door, his small tiger body tense. "You said you felt something different about me. What did you feel?"
I met his intelligent gold eyes. "Your soul signature. Every living thing has one—a unique energy pattern. Beasts have simple signatures. Humans have complex ones. But you..." I gestured at him. "You have both. A human soul trapped in a beast's body. That's impossibly rare. Legendary class."
"And that helps you how?"
"Because legendary class beasts can evolve faster than normal ones. They can handle more power without breaking." I pressed my hand against my chest where the seals burned. "When these seals shatter, my power will flood into you through our bond. A normal beast would die instantly. But you might survive."
Marcus stopped pacing. "Might?"
"Sixty percent chance," I admitted. Through the bond, I felt his fury spike.
"You bonded me knowing there's a forty percent chance I'll die?"
"I bonded you knowing there's a hundred percent chance we BOTH die if I don't find a strong enough partner!" I shot back, my own anger rising. "You think I wanted this? You think I enjoy knowing I've killed five beasts already? That their deaths are on my hands?"
Tears burned my eyes, but I refused to let them fall. Crying was a luxury I couldn't afford.
Marcus's anger softened slightly through the bond. "Tell me about them. The other beasts."
"Why?"
"Because you're carrying their deaths like stones around your neck," he said quietly. "And I need to know if I'm going to be stone number six."
His words cracked something inside me. I'd never told anyone about my previous bonded beasts. Never explained why each one had died. But Marcus wasn't asking out of cruelty—he genuinely wanted to understand.
"The first was a rabbit named Snow," I began. "She lasted three weeks. Sweet and gentle, but too fragile. When my seals cracked during a nightmare, the power surge stopped her heart."
Marcus settled on the floor, listening.
"The second was a hawk called Storm. He survived a month. Stronger than Snow, but too proud. He fought against the bond, tried to resist my power. It tore him apart from the inside."
"The third?" Marcus prompted.
"A wolf named Shadow. Six weeks. He was powerful enough to handle the energy, but not smart enough to control it. The power drove him mad. He attacked other students. I had to..." My voice broke. "I had to ask the instructors to put him down before he killed someone."
Through the bond, I felt Marcus's horror and sympathy.
"The fourth was a serpent named Jade. Two months. She was clever and adaptable. I thought she'd make it. But she tried to absorb too much power at once, hoping to evolve faster. Her body couldn't handle the transformation. She died screaming."
"And the fifth?"
"A fox named Ember. Three months. The longest any of them survived." I wiped my eyes angrily. "She was perfect. Smart, strong, loyal. We were so close to success. Then Damian discovered what I was doing—training in secret, building her strength. He poisoned her food to prove I was cursed."
"He murdered your beast?" Marcus's mental voice was ice-cold.
"He called it 'putting her out of her misery before I killed her myself.'" Bitterness flooded my words. "No one believed me when I accused him. Why would they? I'm the Beast Killer. Obviously I'd lie to save my reputation."
Silence filled the room. Through our bond, I felt Marcus processing everything—the weight of five deaths, the cruelty I'd endured, the impossible situation we were both trapped in.
"I'm sorry," I whispered. "For all of them. For you. I know I'm asking too much. I know it's not fair."
"Life's not fair," Marcus said. "I learned that when I died alone in an office at twenty-eight, having sacrificed everything for people who didn't care if I lived or died."
Our eyes met across the small room. Two broken souls, forced together by desperate circumstances.
"So here's what we're going to do," Marcus continued, his mental voice firm. "You're going to teach me everything you know about surviving your power. Every technique, every trick, every secret your father taught you. And I'm going to learn faster than any beast you've ever seen because I'm not just a beast—I'm human. I can strategize. I can adapt. I can choose to survive."
Hope flickered in my chest for the first time since Ember died. "You mean it?"
"I didn't survive corporate slavery for ten years just to die as someone's pet tiger," Marcus growled. "If we're doing this, we're doing it right. Partners. Equals. No more secrets."
"No more secrets," I agreed.
"Then tell me the truth." Marcus's gold eyes pinned me in place. "When your seals break and fifty elite tamers come to kill you—what's your real plan? Because I don't believe you think we can beat them all."
My heart hammered. He was right. I'd been hiding my true strategy even from myself.
"The plan," I said slowly, "is to survive long enough to reach the Forbidden Vault."
"What's that?"
"A secret chamber beneath the academy where my father hid something before he died. A weapon. The most powerful artifact in our family's history." I took a shaky breath. "He left me a coded message with the location. But the vault is guarded by ancient magic that only activates when a Winters heir reaches their full power."
"So when your seals break—"
"The vault will open," I finished. "If we can reach it before Damian's forces kill us, we might have a chance. The artifact inside is supposed to be powerful enough to—"
A knock sounded at my door.
We both froze.
Through the bond, I felt Marcus's instant alert. I pressed my finger to my lips, signaling silence, and crept toward the door. My protection spells should have prevented anyone from even knowing I was here.
"Aria Winters." The voice outside was male, cold, and unfamiliar. "Open the door. We know you're inside. We know what you are. And we know your seals are breaking."
Ice flooded my veins.
"It's too soon," I whispered. "They weren't supposed to find out until the seals actually broke. How did they—"
"Aria Winters," the voice repeated. "You have ten seconds to open this door before we break it down. Your father's bloodline ends tonight."
Through the window, I saw shadows moving. Not just one person—dozens. Maybe more. They'd surrounded the entire building.
Marcus's mental voice cut through my panic: The countdown. You said two days. Did you miscalculate?
I pressed my hand to my chest, feeling the seals. Horror washed over me.
The cracks had spread faster than I'd thought. Much faster. The seals weren't going to last two more days.
They were going to shatter within the next two hours.
And we were already surrounded by enemies.
"Five seconds, Miss Winters."
I looked at Marcus, my heart in my throat. We hadn't trained. Hadn't prepared. He was still tiny and weak. We had no plan, no weapons, no chance.
Through our bond, I felt his fear—but also his determination.
What do we do? he asked.
I grabbed my father's journal from under my mattress and threw open the window. Three stories down. Guards approaching from all sides. The Forbidden Vault was on the opposite end of campus.
"We run," I said, scooping Marcus into my arms.
The door exploded inward behind us.
And I jumped.