CHAPTER 78 Torj
CHAPTER 78
Torj
‘Every shadow is a potential threat, every sound a harbinger of danger’
– Mastering the Craft of Close Protection
T IME LOST ALL coherence. Seconds, minutes, and hours stretched into eternity as Torj waited for news of Wren, alone now that Wilder was following orders elsewhere. Her fear lanced through his chest like a blade: sharp, cutting to the bone. He could taste her terror on his tongue.
Unable to stand the quiet and the faint lingering scent of Wren in his rooms, Torj found himself back in the dining hall. He paced jagged lines between the rows of tables, each restless step only fuelling the turmoil within. Somewhere out there in the Gauntlet, Wren was facing something horrific, and there was nothing he could do to help her.
Around him, the academy masters, the newly arrived royals and their guards, the Warswords and scholars engaged in hushed conversations, their words lost beneath the weight of his panic.
‘Easy there, Bear Slayer,’ said a voice from behind him. ‘You’ll wear a track through the floor.’
Althea Embervale was leaning against one of the tables, cleaning her fingernails with her Naarvian steel dagger, pinning him with a celadon gaze that matched her sister’s. In Wren’s absence, the sisters’ similarities made Torj’s heart wrench: hair the same shade of bronze, those piercing green eyes, the same dark features, Thea’s currently drawn taut in a fiery expression.
‘You don’t worry for her?’ Torj asked.
‘No,’ Thea said simply.
Torj stared at her. ‘How can you not? Knowing what she’s up against? Knowing the danger—’
Thea gave a harsh laugh. ‘Wren knows danger intimately. It’s the danger that should be concerned.’
How long ago had it been that he’d said something similar to Audra?
Thea gave him a sympathetic look. ‘Have faith.’
But Thea wasn’t feeling what he was. She didn’t have her sister’s panic spearing through her, nor her surges of power. Torj rubbed at his sternum with his fist as it coursed through him again. It went against his very nature not to be by her side, not to be protecting her.
He felt sick. Bracing himself on the edge of the table, he inhaled measured breaths, waiting for the brutal onslaught to subside.
When he looked up again, Thea was watching him with narrowed eyes. ‘What aren’t you telling me, Bear Slayer?’
He wanted to tell her it was nothing, that he was merely concerned for Wren, as any rational person would be. But with each passing moment, the foreign pulse of fear reverberated through his body, a relentless drumbeat of dread that threatened to consume him.
‘Torj?’ Thea pressed, brow crinkling. ‘What is it? And if you tell me “nothing” I’ll blast you with lightning – and it won’t be the kind that inspires the phrase “ storm-kissed ” .’
The bolt of power Wren had hit him with at Thezmarr had hardly been gentle, but he kept that detail to himself.
‘I’d save yourself the trouble and just tell her, brother,’ Wilder said, taking his place beside Thea, an arm sliding around her waist. Torj tracked the movement: casual and familiar, yet still a subtle claiming for the whole world to see. It made his chest ache.
His friends waited, their expressions open, their eyes full of understanding.
Torj glanced around. ‘Not here,’ he said.
He took them away from the prying eyes and eager ears of the dining hall to the archives and the private space he’d often occupied over the last few months. When they were seated and he was certain they wouldn’t be overheard, he met their gazes.
‘I can feel her,’ he told them, pulling his shirt aside to reveal the web of scars there.
‘What do you mean?’ Thea said slowly.
‘Right now, I can feel her fear, and when she uses her magic...It pulses right here. I consulted Farissa, and I’ve been investigating magical wounds, accidental curses, the effects of sovereign magic – all to understand what this is...’
‘And?’ Wilder asked.
‘And I don’t have the answers. I have read dozens of books. I have researched for hours on end. I have talked to others with injuries resulting from magic. But I am not sick. The scars haven’t spread. I feel like myself, only... more . In the years after the war, I felt it only occasionally. A thrum of power, like an echo left over from the battle, but...’ He dragged his fingers through his hair, pushing back the stray lock that fell into his eyes. ‘Since I saw Wren again, it’s been different.’
‘Different how?’ Thea demanded, her eyes locked on his scars.
‘It’s as though we’re linked. I can sense her power, her emotions. We’re...in tune with one another.’
Thea folded her arms across her chest and glanced at Wilder. ‘She allowed you to wield her power in the battle for Thezmarr. We both witnessed it.’
Wilder nodded. ‘I’ve never seen anything like it.’
‘That kind of magic leaves more than a mark, surely...?’ Thea ventured.
‘That’s what I’ve been trying to determine,’ Torj said. ‘What happens to someone who has hosted power that doesn’t belong to them – that they were not made to wield? Does some sort of delayed reaction occur? Does the wound heal over, only to fester from within?’
Thea unsheathed her dagger and spun it on the table. ‘Why wound ?’ she asked.
‘What do you mean?’
‘I mean, has this link caused you pain? Do the scars ache?’ she pressed, continuing to spin her dagger, her brow furrowed.
Torj hesitated. When Wren’s power had first hit him in the battle, he had thought he was going to die, but had it been from pain? Had he suffered as the lightning coursed through him?
‘No,’ he said quietly. ‘It has never hurt me.’
‘Then why the discussion of magical wounds and injuries?’
Beside her, Wilder looked thoughtful. ‘It’s natural, isn’t it? What comes before a scar? Pain.’
‘And yet, our Bear Slayer here felt none.’
‘Perhaps he just doesn’t remember?’ Wilder said gently. ‘Trauma does that to the best of us...’
But Thea shot to her feet.
‘Where are you going?’ Torj asked.
‘Just wait here,’ she commanded, already halfway out the door.
To Torj’s surprise, Wilder hadn’t moved a muscle. He simply offered a shrug. ‘I find it’s just best to run with it.’
With his elbows on the table, Torj rested his head in his hands, tensing as another surge of storm magic assaulted him. The walls of the study chamber seemed to close in.
‘It’s that intense?’ Wilder asked quietly.
‘This isn’t the half of it,’ Torj replied, not looking up.
He wasn’t sure he could bear the agony of uncertainty for much longer. He was just about to return to the dining hall to see if there was any word when a thick book dropped onto the table before him with a thud.
‘Here,’ Thea said, throwing herself back into her chair. ‘That was in Kipp’s room. I saw it when I arrived and thought nothing of it, but now...’
Frowning, Torj turned the title towards him.
Tethers and Magical Bonds Throughout History .
‘You kept saying you were linked . That’s not an injury – it’s a connection. And the fact that Kipp had this in his room tells me he’s thinking something similar,’ Thea supplied. ‘I hate to break it to you, but you’ve been researching the wrong thing, Bear Slayer.’
A strange, creeping sensation swept across Torj’s skin as he opened the hefty tome, turning to its contents page.
Definitions of magical bonds
Causes of magical bonds
Classifications of magical bonds
His gaze caught on the list beneath the latter: Parental and inherited magical connections. Sibling bonds. Animal telepathy. Fated enemies. Seers and subjects. Bonds and magical objects. Alchemical connections.
Soul bonds.
A breath shuddered out of him as he read, forgetting Thea and Wilder as he leafed through the pages to the correct chapter.
‘Soul bonds...’ he murmured, tracing the title before reading aloud. ‘ Also referred to as: soul-bonded, bonded, fated pairing, twin flames, surge binding, soul ties... ’
Thea cleared her throat. ‘Looks like you have some reading to do.’
Torj didn’t even look up as the couple left the chamber. Instead, he pored over the words before him, each more damning than the next.
If Audra was surprised to find Torj on the other side of her door, she didn’t show it.
‘You knew.’ The accusation came out in a growl.
Audra’s expression remained unreadable as she opened the door further and motioned him inside. Only when the door clicked shut did she dip her head in acknowledgement. ‘I suspected.’
‘Since when?’ he demanded.
‘Since I saw that bolt of lightning hit you on the battlefield.’
‘Five fucking years ago.’
‘Yes.’
He made a sound of pure rage. ‘What the fuck, Audra?’
Audra’s eyes narrowed. ‘Calm yourself, Elderbrock.’
‘Calm myself?’ He shook his head in raging disbelief. ‘How do you expect me to calm myself? I have no idea what this means.’
‘Exactly what part don’t you understand?’
‘To start with – the part where I might be connected to Wren’s soul ?’
Audra sighed heavily. ‘A soul bond is a rare and powerful form of magic that is fated by the gods themselves. A gift. It was always simmering beneath the surface for you and Elwren, lying dormant, but I suspect that moment during the final battle awoke it.’
Torj tossed the book Thea had found onto Audra’s desk with a thud. ‘This says there have been no records of soul bonds for centuries. So, how? How the fuck is this possible? And how could you possibly have known?’
Audra pushed her spectacles to the bridge of her nose with barely a glance at the tome. ‘The power Wren displayed at Thezmarr could have only been withstood by something ancient...a magic no longer of this world – until now. You should have died. You were not built to wield power like it, and yet...you did. Because you are a part of her, and she a part of you.’
Torj clenched his fists at his sides, suppressing the urge to hit something. ‘What are you saying, Audra? Speak plainly for once in your fucking life.’
Unperturbed, Audra continued. ‘Often in moments of great emotional intensity, or in the face of a life-altering event, the bond makes itself known. Wren’s power unlocked it between you. The fall of the Veil soon after only gave way to more old magic in the world.’
‘If you knew all of this, why did you encourage my research on the wrong fucking subject? I’ve been toiling away reading text after text about magical wounds, for fuck’s sake. Interviewing poor victims of sovereign magic—’
‘I needed to be sure it wasn’t an injury that would send you mad like others who’ve faced the might of such power. A mad Warsword is a dangerous thing.’
He spoke his next words through gritted teeth. ‘And how can you be sure?’
‘I can’t. Only you can.’
‘How?’ he demanded.
Audra glanced at the book on the table. ‘The ancient texts I have read report that a soul bond can be seen by the bonded. When it falls into place for the fated pair, there is a visible representation – a golden thread between them. Have you seen such a thing?’
Torj took a steadying breath, fighting to rein his emotions back in. ‘No.’
‘Then perhaps I’m wrong,’ Audra offered.
‘But you don’t think you are.’
‘No,’ she replied. ‘I believe it has to play out...’
‘We’re not pawns in some fucking game,’ Torj snapped.
‘We are all pieces on life’s chessboard, Elderbrock.’
No longer able to stand still, he moved about the room like an incensed beast. He wanted to destroy things, wanted to tear Audra’s space apart for what she’d done. But he needed to know, needed to understand.
‘How does it work?’ he ground out.
She eyed him warily. ‘What starts as a seemingly simple connection grows into something all-consuming. The two individuals become linked in ways that defy understanding. They can sense each other’s emotions, share dreams, and even experience the other’s physical sensations as if they were their own...’
Torj’s throat went dry, each revelation hitting him hard in the chest. And yet he couldn’t believe it – wouldn’t.
‘The bond grows stronger with time and proximity.’
Torj glared at her, his heart rate spiking. ‘You paired me as her bodyguard deliberately.’
‘Everything I do is deliberate, Bear Slayer,’ she said. ‘But not even I am a match for the will of the Furies, and the fates they lay at our feet. Whether I put you and Elwren together or not, you would have found your way back to one another.’ She thrust her chin towards the book on the table. ‘How much of that have you read?’
‘Enough to confront you about your horseshit mind games.’
‘But not all of it,’ she surmised with an arched brow. ‘I suspect that the bond has been sliding into place for some time, perhaps since your reunion at the fortress? Though I imagine it’s amplified since you became...intimate.’
Torj balked, rage simmering to a boil. ‘Are you spying on us, Guild Master?’
Audra scoffed. ‘It was inevitable, Bear Slayer. And whether it was the physical act or something more emotional, a trigger set it in motion. Some ancient texts cite the soul bond as a gift from the gods, a testament to the power of love and destiny, something that can strengthen and heal. Others see it as a curse, a burden that strips away free will and binds two souls together for eternity.’
‘And?’ he pressed.
‘It is not without its dangers. Just as the bonded individuals can share their triumphs, they also share each other’s pain and suffering. If one is wounded, the other feels the wound as if it were their own. In times of war or strife, this connection can be a double-edged sword, making the bonded vulnerable to their enemies.’
‘And so...if this far-fetched story is true...you put me in a position where I would willingly die for her? I literally threw myself in front of a spear for her, only to now discover it could have killed her too.’ He couldn’t breathe, not as the image of Wren suffering the same agony flashed before him.
But Audra ploughed on. ‘You haven’t seen the thread between you, so perhaps this isn’t what I think. Or – the bond is not fully in place. Until it is, that cannot happen. Though no doubt your sacrifice only made your connection that much stronger.’
‘Are you mad?’ Torj was shaking. ‘Are you actually insane?’
‘No,’ Audra replied. ‘Far from it. You have always been stronger together. And you will be, when you are soul-bonded for life.’
A laugh of disbelief escaped Torj then. ‘You expect me to believe that there is some sort of mystical ancient magic between me and Wren?’
‘Yes,’ Audra said plainly. ‘And you must believe it, for it may pose a danger to you both. If anyone discovers this bond when it falls into place, it can be exploited. You can be used against each other, hurt one to hurt the other...’ She pinned him with a meaningful look. ‘I do not deny that she will be vulnerable through you. The connection between you can be abused. A strike against you is a strike against her.’
‘Well, if by some stroke of the Furies this is true...No one knows. No one has to know,’ Torj argued, his impatience rising. He should have been out there looking for her, and he was standing here, listening to Audra talk nonsense. There was no gold thread linking him and Wren, no so-called soul bond . Their connection was natural, shaped by over a decade of knowing one another, of facing a war together.
But Audra was frowning. ‘Secrets such as these never remain hidden for long. Tell me, how did you finally uncover the concept?’
He pointed to the volume on the table. ‘Thea found that book in Kipp’s room. She brought it to me.’
Audra raised a brow. ‘So...I know. Farissa suspects. Thea, and, naturally, Hawthorne, know. Kristopher knows. Already it is no longer a secret.’
‘There is nothing to know,’ Torj countered. ‘And even if there was, I would trust them with my life.’
‘But do you trust them with hers ?’
Torj hesitated. Of course he trusted his friends. They had been through the war together; they had saved each other time and time again. But Audra had a point. Secrets could so quickly unravel.
‘You see?’ Audra said, watching the realization dawn on his face.
Torj swallowed the lump in his throat. ‘If it were real...What then? Is there a way to...stop it? To cut the tie?’
‘If there is, I do not know it. But this connection between you runs soul-deep, Elderbrock. To meddle with it would be to interfere with the will of the gods, with fate itself.’
Torj shifted on his feet, eyes narrowing. ‘What’s in this for you, Audra? Are you hoping that if this is true, I’ll wield Wren’s storms at your command? That you’ll somehow benefit from one of your soldiers being soul-bonded to the future Queen of Delmira? Has it been a power play all along for you?’
‘Watch your tone, Bear Slayer.’
‘I’ll watch my tone when you stop hiding your real agenda.’ Audra had always been known for her scheming and secrets, but this? He would not have her using Wren in her games.
‘Everything I do is for the good of the midrealms, Warsword. You’d do well to remember that.’ The Guild Master gathered herself. ‘During those seconds on the battlefield, Elwren saved you. She tethered you to this world, and to herself for life. Your fates have always been entwined.’
Ready to throw the damn book in the fire, Torj snatched it from the table, surging for the door. He turned back to level Audra with a hard stare. ‘We’re the makers of our own fucking fates, Guild Master.’