Justin's POV
The pain wakes me before the scream does.
It his hard——-like fire threading through my chest, white——hot and sudden, yanking me from sleep like I've been stabbed.
I sit up, gasping, the sheets tangled, my breath caught somewhere between a curse and a name.
Sarah.
My hand flies to my chest, just over my heart.
It's burning.
The skin beneath my pal, pulses——hot, electric——-and I yank my shirt up, heart pounding.
There, glowing faintly through my skin, is a mark I've never seen before.
Twisting lines. Interwoven threads.
Fae in origin, but older than anything I've ever felt.
And it's…..alive.
I stumble out of bed, my legs weak, every inch of me vibrating like the magic is still inside me, still bleeding into me.
The bond——
I thought it was gone.
But this?
This isn't gone.
It's back.
And it's louder than it's ever been.
The door burts open.
My mother enters first, robe half-clutched, eyes already glowing with power. My father follows, silent, cold.
They don't speak.
They see the mark.
My mother's breath catches.
"No," she says immediately, striding toward me. "It's not possible. It was severed."
I back up instinctively, my voice hoarse. "What it is?"
She grabs my wrist, too tight. "You tell me. What did you do while you was gone?"
"I didn't do anything——"
I break off.
Because I don't know what this is.
But I know who it's for.
"You need to stay away from her," she snaps. "Now more than ever."
"Why?" I demand. "Why does this mark matter so much?"
My father answers this time, voice quiet, sharp.
"She was never meant to be anything more than your target. She was supposed to get close to you. Not the other way around."
The words land like a blade.
"Your uncle failed," my mother says. "We are here to finish what he started. That girl was never meant to survive, let alone matter."
They don't say her name.
Like saying it now gives her more power.
I look down at the mark——still glowing. Still burning. Still hers.
I don't understand.
She turned me away.
And now she's calling to me again?
I stand there in the quiet after their fury, the mark pulsing in time with my heartbeat.
And for the first time since leaving Nox...
I feel her again.
But I don't know if I'm going back to her——
Or if I'll survive it if I do.
*********
Sarah's POV
The chamber is too quiet.
The mark still burns across my chest, pulsing softly beneath the fabric like a heartbeat that doesn't belong to me.
Freyr hasn't moved.
He's watching me like I've become something he doesn't recognize.
I'm not sure I recognize myself either.
I reach for the edge of the broken ritual circle, trying to stand——my limbs weak, my thoughts fractured.
And that's when it hits.
Not a memory.
A sensation.
But it's not mine.
A hand brushing my shoulder——tentative, afraid of breaking something fragile.
A glance held too long.
My name in a voice too soft for anyone to hear.
Justin.
I feel him.
Not as a presence.
As a perspective.
Like I've slipping into a memory from the other side of the bond——his side.
I see myself through his eyes——laughing once, distant, back in the early days. I see the moment he started looking at me differently.
And it hurts more than anything else.
Because I didn't know.
Because I turned away.
The vision fades just as my knees hit the stone, and I double over, breath caught between a sob and a scream.
Freyr moves then—-his steps sharp, measured, like a blade.
"You're not ready," he says, voice cool again, composed. "The fates are testing you. This magic——this memory——isn't real. It's a fabrication. A weakness."
I lift my head, slowly.
"I saw his memory," I whisper. "Not mine."
He stills.
Something flickers in his expression.
Discomfort.
Recognition.
"It was an echo," he says carefully. "Nothing more."
I rise to my feet, trembling but steady.
"You lied to me," I say. "About everything."
"Sarah—-"
"You didn't free me. You used me. You cut the bond not to protect me——but to control me."
His face hardens.
"You were never meant to be tied to him. That bond was unnatural——"
"Then why won't it die!?" I snap.
The walls tremble.
The mark on my chest flares.
The realm hums——not with his magic, but mine.
Freyr steps back.
For the first time, he doesn't look in control.
"I won't be their weapon," I tell him. "And I won't be your puppet."
Before he can respond, the air in the center of the room ripples——then ignites.
A small, flickering flame bursts to life midair. It doesn't burn the floor. It doesn't spread.
It waits.
I take a step forward, breath caught in my throat.
The flame pulses——soft, then sharp——-and suddenly I feel him again.
Not words.
Not images.
Emotion.
Confusion.
Pain.
Longing.
He's felt the mark too,
He's felt me.
Tears sting my eyes before I can stop them.
"Justin," I whisper.
The flame flares once, then vanishes.
Freyr says nothing.
But I can feel it in the silence.
Everything is changing.
And this time?
It's not in his favor.
**********
Freyr's POV
She shouldn't have been able to feel him.
Not after everything I cut from her.
Not after what I severed.
And yet—-
She whispered his name like it was still tethered to her heart.
And the flame answered.
I stand in the empty corridor just beyond the chamber now, the cold seeping through the walls like frost. The shadows here used to obey me without hesitation.
Now...they flicker.
Wait.
Listen for her.
The mark should have meant nothing.
A side effect. A scar.
But I saw the way it pulsed beneath her skin.
I saw how the realm responded.
Not to me.
To her.
There is no way the Courts don't know now.
I clench my first, the stone around my knuckles groaning.
The fates intervened once.
They've seemed to have done it again.
But this time…..they didn't simply stop the ritual.
They reignited something I buried.
Something I should have ended the night I let her choose him.
She was never meant to belong to anyone.
Let alone to a bond that isn't of Lumindellar.
Older than Nox itself.
I pace, fast now, heart tight, magic sparking in my chest. The realm hums beneath me—-but not the way it used to.
It's watching me.
Waiting for her.
I can't allow this.
The bond must be destroyed completely.
If I wait, it will grow stronger.
If he finds his way back to her——
No.
I won't allow that.
I gave her power. I gave her purpose. I gave her a throne built from silence and magic and blood.
She was mine.
And now?
Now she carries him in her bones.
I press my palm to the wall.
It doesn't open for me.
Not right away.
Even Nox hesitates now.
I close my eyes, focusing, steadying my voice into the ancient tongue. The wall breathes, then yields.
Barely.
The fates have interfered for the last time.
If I can't sever the bond.
Then I will burn it from her.