42. Chapter Forty Two
Chapter Forty Two
Eldrake
Drake?
Her voice.
So quiet it was almost not there. But it echoed somewhere deep inside me—cutting through the suffocating dark like a blade of light, slicing past the pain and the iron and the silence that had drowned me. I sucked in a sharp breath, my heart lurching in my chest.
Was it real? Or had I finally cracked under the pressure—another hallucination, a flicker of hope conjured by a starved mind?
Then, just beneath the haze of pain and the choking silence, I felt it. A flicker. Magic. Not mine. Not Azh’raim’s.
Hers.
It slipped through the cracks like moonlight under a locked door—sharp and sudden, like a breath after drowning. My spine snapped straighter. My heart surged in my chest.
The wards. I felt them fall.
“She’s here,” I breathed. My voice shook with the force of it. “Gods, she really did it.”
Beside me, Avod stirred. “Drake?” he asked cautiously, sensing the change in the air—sensing me , maybe, reacting to something only I could feel.
“She’s close,” I said, and couldn’t stop the way my lips curved with awe. “I can feel her. The Rift’s back.”
The room itself seemed to hum, the pressure lifting from my skin like a second skin being peeled away. The fire I’d been holding inside me—dampened, smothered—suddenly caught a spark. The tether between us flared to life. No longer frayed. No longer faint.
The bond thrummed like a silver wire drawn taut through my ribs. She was alive. Fierce. Moving toward me like a storm. And she knew exactly where I was. Gods, and she felt… different.
I pressed my hand against the cold stone, grounding myself against the torrent of emotion threatening to crack me open. A moment later, the heavy iron door creaked open.
Torchlight spilled into the chamber like dawn—and then I saw her. My love. My storm. My salvation.
She stepped into the room like a weapon drawn in moonlight. Her hair was a curtain of fire, tousled and wild, her body alive with tension. Her chest rose and fell in frantic rhythm, as if she’d fought her way through every beast in the tower to get here—and I didn’t doubt for a second that she had.
But it was her eyes that stopped my heart.
No longer just green.
They blazed—not with fire, but with starlight. Emerald and silver and velvet and flame. The Rift danced behind her pupils like it had come awake inside her and was looking out through her gaze. Not a flicker, not a trick of the torchlight.
Star-Glow.
Awe slammed into me like a punch. My breath caught. I’d heard stories—myth mostly, of Riftborn developing Star-Glow rather than being born with it. But seeing it… seeing her like this… She was a force. No longer on the edge of her power. She was her power. And still mine.
“Drake!” she cried, and in two steps she was in front of me, dropping to her knees. Her hands trembled as they reached for the manacles at my wrists, then froze—her breath catching as she took me in.
Her gaze swept over the bruises, the blood, the burn marks. Her touch was featherlight on my skin, and yet it lit something inside me I thought had gone out.
“You’re here,” I rasped. My voice was broken glass and wonder.
She looked up, her glowing eyes shining with guilt and love and something feral beneath it all. “I’m so sorry,” she whispered. “I should’ve never doubted. I should’ve known—” Her voice cracked.
I leaned forward as far as the chains would allow. “You came for me,” I said. “That’s all I care about.”
Then she kissed me. Gods, she kissed me . There was no fear in it. No hesitation. Just heat and heartache and the desperate hunger of two people torn apart too soon.
Her soft lips crushed against mine like a promise. Her hands cupped my face, thumbs sweeping across my cheekbones. Everything—every minute of torture, every lost hour in the dark, every second spent fearing I’d never see her again—melted in that kiss.
I didn’t even realize I was crying until she pulled back, her forehead pressing against mine.
“I love you,” she whispered, her voice trembling. “I love you, Drake. I don’t care what the bond means or doesn’t mean—I chose you. I still choose you.”
Her words shattered something inside me. And rebuilt something else.
“I love you,” I said, the truth of it anchoring me more than any chain ever could. “You’re my beginning and end, Evandra.”
Her eyes welled. “I’m never letting you go again.” Her hands went back to the manacles, trembling harder now. “I’ll get you out. I swear.”
From the corner of the room, a voice cleared his throat.
“Ahem. Sorry to interrupt the literal embodiment of fate or whatever this is,” Avod deadpanned, “but could someone please unchain me before I bleed out?”
Eva huffed a teary laugh. I did too. But even as I looked toward Avod, I couldn’t stop glancing back at her.
At her Star-Glow eyes. At the Rift singing between us like it had waited centuries for this moment.
For us. And in that moment, I didn’t care about the battle outside. Or the tower. Or Azh’raim.
Because she was here. And the world had finally tilted in the right direction again.
Avod dropped, his knees buckling. Fen caught him by the arm before he could hit the stone. For a breath, their weight leaned into each other—Avod’s grip tightening instinctively on her wrist, Fen’s hand steady at his elbow.
“Fen,” he rasped, looking up at her with a mixture of relief and something harder to name. Her eyes softened—just barely—as they met his. The moment lingered half a beat too long before she stepped back, her daggers twirling into place at her sides.
“Can you stand?” she asked, tone brisk, though the faintest flush warmed her cheeks.
“Yeah.” Avod straightened with a grunt, brushing himself off. But his gaze held hers a breath longer than necessary, heavy with something unspoken.
Despite the tension pressing in on us, I couldn’t help but notice the weight of that silence between them—like a line drawn and never crossed, but never erased.
Eva turned her attention back to me, her hands reaching for the manacles still binding my wrists. “Let’s get you out of here.”
As the iron restraints fell away, I collapsed forward, my body still weak and battered.
I instinctively reached for her as soon as my hands were free, desperate to feel her in my arms again.
I held onto her as tightly as I could manage, burying my face in her hair, inhaling the scent of honeysuckle and something uniquely her.
“I am so in love with you.” I said, my voice cracking with emotion.
Her breath hitched, and I felt her smile against my neck. “You better be,” she said with a chuckle. She pulled back, helping me stand as Fen and Avod exchanged another glance. Whatever had passed between them in the silence was left unspoken—but it was there, lingering like an uninvited guest.
From the shadows, Felix cleared his throat. “Lovely reunion. Truly heartwarming. But maybe we could save the dramatic declarations and tongue wrestling until after we’re not standing in Vyper’s basement?”
Eva shot him a glare; and I wheezed a laugh despite the blood in my throat.
Felix raised a brow. “I mean, I get it—you’re both very in love, very shiny with destiny. Just…maybe prioritize survival before romance. Radical thought, I know.”
Avod shook his head, still smiling faintly.
“Let’s move,” Fen cut in, brisk again though her flush lingered. “We’ve got a long way to go, and Vyper won’t stay distracted forever.”
Felix fell in behind us with a sigh. “Good. Maybe the next room has fewer chains and less kissing. My delicate sensibilities can only take so much.”