Nyx POV
"No—" A sob tore from my throat. "No, there has to be something—"
'There is.' Frost's voice turned grave. 'But it will bind you to him. Permanently. Irrevocably. In ways you cannot yet understand.'
I stared down at Kael's face. He was pale and still with blood on his lips. His storm-gray eyes closed. The boy who'd held me in the old mill and promised we'd be together. The boy who'd looked through me at the ceremony like I was nothing.
The boy who, despite everything, I wasn't ready to lose.
"I don't care," I whispered. "Tell me how to save him."
'A life-bond. You give him part of your life force—your magic, your strength, your very essence. It will tether you together. You will feel each other's pain, sense each other's emotions, and be unable to separate by great distance without suffering.'
My hands were shaking on his chest. "Will it save him?"
'If done in time. You have seconds to decide.'
Seconds. Kael had seconds.
I looked at his face one more time and tried to imagine a world where this broken, complicated, infuriating boy simply didn't exist anymore.
I couldn't.
"Do it," I said. "Tell me how."
'Place your hands over his heart. Channel everything you are through the bond—your magic, your life, your will. Pour it into him until his heart remembers how to beat.'
I pressed both palms flat against his chest, right over his still heart. His blood was sticky and cold under my fingers.
"What if I don't have enough?" My voice was barely a whisper. "What if it's not enough to save him?"
'Then you both die,' Frost said simply. 'This is the risk. This is the price. Choose now, child. He has no more time.'
I closed my eyes and reached deep inside myself, to that well of power I'd only just discovered.
I gathered all of it and I pushed.
Magic poured out of me like a flood. Cold and bright and desperate, flowing from my hands into Kael's chest. I felt it enter him, felt it searching through his broken body for something to grab onto, something still alive enough to save.
'More,' Frost commanded. 'He needs more.'
I gave more and more. My own heart was racing now, working overtime, as if it was trying to beat for both of us. The world started to gray at the edges.
'Don't stop,' Frost said. 'Almost there—'
Something in Kael's chest moved.
A flutter. It was faint. Weak. But there. It gave me strength.
"Come on," I breathed. "Come on, Kael—"
I pushed everything I had left into that flutter, feeding it, strengthening it, begging it to grow.
And his heart beat.
Once.
Twice.
Then steady. Slow but steady.
I gasped and nearly collapsed on top of him, my vision swimming, my whole body shaking with exhaustion.
But beneath my hands, his chest rose.
Fell.
Rose again.
He was breathing.
"Oh gods," I whispered. "Oh gods, it worked—"
Then pain exploded through my entire body.
Not physical pain. Something deeper. Something is wrong. It felt like my soul was being stretched, pulled, forced to expand beyond the boundaries of my own skin.
I screamed.
And through the pain, I felt the bond forming. Not like the bond with Frost, which had been a joining, a partnership.
This was a tethering.
A chain of light and magic and life itself, connecting my heart to Kael's, my breath to his breath, my existence to his existence.
I felt his pain as if it was mine—the agony of his wounds, the weakness of his body, the confused darkness of his unconscious mind.
And I knew, with absolute certainty, that he would feel me the same way.
When he woke up, he would know what I'd done.
He would know I'd bound us together.
He would hate me for it.
The pain faded slowly, leaving me gasping on my hands and knees beside him. The bond settled into place—a constant, thrumming presence at the back of my mind. Not as strong as Frost, but there.
'It is done,' Frost said quietly. 'The life-bond is formed. You are tethered now. For as long as you both shall live.'
I looked down at Kael. His breathing was still shallow, his wounds still bleeding, but his heart beat steadily beneath my hand.
Alive.
He was alive.
And he was mine.
A smile tugged at my lips—exhausted, slightly hysterical, edged with something that might have been triumph or might have been despair. Mine. The boy who'd thrown me away was now tethered to me forever.
The irony would have been funny if I had the energy to laugh.
'You should rest child, you are weak.' Frost's massive form moved closer, her cold presence somehow comforting.
"I can't." I looked around at the darkness, the circling rogue wolves that still watched from the shadows, the blood soaking into the earth. "I need to get him to safety. Out of here."
I tried to stand. My legs wouldn't cooperate. I made it to my knees before my vision swam dangerously.
'Where do you wish to go?'
The question stopped me.
Where could I go?
The Council grounds—no. By now they'd know I'd escaped. They'd be searching. And what would they do when they found me? When they discovered I'd not only fled but bound myself to Kael Stormborn?
Would they try to break the bond? Could they?
My family's cottage rose in my mind—small, worn, warm. The opposite of everything the Council represented.
'Your mind is chaos,' Frost observed. 'You need sleep.'
"I can't sleep when I don't know what will happen tomorrow." My words slurred together. When had my tongue become so heavy?
'You won't be able to face tomorrow if you don't take care of yourself today. Let tomorrow take care of itself, child.'
She was right. Of course she was right.
I could feel consciousness slipping away from me, darkness creeping in at the edges of my vision. My arms shook as I gathered Kael against my chest, cradling his head against my shoulder. His blood soaked through my already-ruined dress.
"Take me home," I whispered.
Frost's power wrapped around us both—cold and vast and absolute. The world blurred. The ancient forest dissolved into streaks of shadow and starlight.
When reality solidified, I stood on the worn dirt path leading to my family's cottage. Yellow lamplight glowed through the windows, warm against the darkness.
Home.
Before I could even think about knocking, the door flew open.
My mother stood in the doorway, lamp in hand, her face cycling rapidly through emotions—relief, joy, confusion, horror.
"Nyx!" She rushed forward. "We heard what happened at the Council…they said you were being held…how did you—"
Her eyes dropped to Kael.
To the blood covering us both, his torn clothes and unconscious face.
Her mouth formed a perfect 'O'.
"Who is that?" My father's voice came from inside, sharp with alarm.
"Nyx. Our Nyx." My mother's voice broke. "She's home."
My father appeared in the doorway, hastily pulling on a coat. He'd aged a decade since this morning. New lines carved around his eyes, his hair somehow grayer. The guilt hit me.
"Is that blood?" He was already moving toward us. "Are you hurt?"
"Not mine." My voice sounded strange, distant. "His. He was dying. I saved him. Had to save him—"
My knees buckled.
"Help," I managed. "Please. He needs—"
My father was there instantly, taking Kael's weight from my arms with practiced strength. My mother supported Kael's head, and together they carried him inside.
"Finn!" my father called. "Get bandages. Boil water. Now."
I tried to follow them inside, but my legs wouldn't work anymore. The world tilted sideways.
Strong arms caught me before I hit the ground—Finn.
He'd appeared without my noticing, his face carved from stone, jaw so tight I could see the muscle jumping. He didn't say a word as he lifted me, but I felt the tension in his body. Fury and fear and relief, all churning together.
"Finn—" I tried.
"Not now." His voice was rough as he carried me through the cottage toward my room. "Rest. We'll talk when you can actually keep your eyes open."
He set me down on my bed with gentleness, his hands shaking slightly as he pulled the blanket over me. My blood-soaked dress would ruin the sheets, but he didn't seem to care.
"I'm sorry," I whispered. "I'm sorry for—for everything—"
"Shh." He brushed hair back from my forehead, the gesture startlingly tender. "Just sleep, Nyx."
He left, closing the door softly behind him.
Through the walls, I heard movement—my mother's voice giving instructions, my father's heavier footsteps, water being poured. They were tending to Kael's wounds.
He'd be okay.
He had to be okay.
'Frost?' I reached out weakly.
'I am here. Always.'
'Will everything be okay?'
'It will be.' Her mental voice was gentler than I'd ever heard it. 'Sleep now, child. Tomorrow will come whether you're ready or not.'
I wanted to ask more. About the Council, about what they'd do, about what would happen when Kael woke up and realized what I'd done, about the bond thrumming steadily at the back of my mind.
But sleep was pulling me under like a tide, and I was too exhausted to fight it anymore.
The last thing I felt before darkness claimed me completely was the presence of two connections in my mind. Frost's ancient, steady consciousness, and something newer, rawer, more fragile.
Kael's heartbeat, steady and strong.
Alive because of me.
Bound to me.
Mine.
Then nothing.