Chapter 11
Seph
After finishing my run, Ash pressed a water bottle into my hand and I wandered over to Sy.
He sat on his haunches at the edge of the track, vast and still. As I approached, his tail shifted, curling around my legs in an unmistakably protective gesture.
In front of him lay the bloody remains of a large animal. A cow, maybe. Or what used to be one.
“Gross, Sy,” I said, though I was smiling despite myself.
He huffed, a low vibration in his chest, and I felt the echo of his amusement brush against my mind.
I took a long drink of water and watched the compound. Dev was talking to Ash near the weights — but his gaze kept drifting back to me.
I sighed.
Sy let out a quiet, questioning sound and angled his head toward me, watching closely. Assessing.
Like he was asking if I was all right.
“I’m fine,” I murmured, resting my shoulder lightly against his scaled flank. “Just stupid, traitorous hormones.”
Sy grunted — thoroughly unimpressed.
I sat down beside him, the stone still warm beneath my legs, and drank the rest of the water in silence.
“I bet you never thought you’d get such an unskilled disaster as your charge, huh, big guy.”
Sy let out a low growl in response.
“I don’t know how to fight. Or run. Or… do much of anything,” I went on, the words tumbling out now that they’d started. “I’m not super trained and—”
Sy turned his head, fixing me with that steady, ancient gaze.
I swallowed, then blurted, “And I’ve kissed exactly two people in my whole life. And nothing else. And not even— I mean—”
I stopped, flustered.
Sy waited. Patient. Unmoving.
“I think I’m getting feelings for someone else.” I glanced at him quickly.
“Maybe a couple of someone’s,” I admitted more quietly.
“And I shouldn’t. Because it’s not fair.”
The words came out softer than I meant them to.
Sy let out a long rumble that sounded like a purr. I rested my head against his warm scales.
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t be rambling,” I added.
He ruffed softly.
I laughed. “Oh please, this must be so boring.”
His eyes sharpened. The message brushed against my thoughts—clear as words.
I like listening to you.
“So, how was your night?” I smiled.
He huffed a breath over the bones before him.
“Mm, yummy,” I drawled. “Don’t you get indigestion in human form?”
Suddenly, Sy tensed.
“What?”
He growled quietly, warning. I followed his gaze.
“What is that?” I asked, standing.
There in the distance, I could see something rising in the valley.
Smoke – wrong against the sky.
In the distance, a low, rhythmic thudding rolled toward us — rotors.
“Oh no,”
Behind me, people were already running into action.
“Seph!”
Kieran’s voice cut through the chaos behind me.
“Seph! Get inside! Run!”
Sy was up in an instant, his roar tearing through the valley. His wings snapped wide, the air shuddering under their force.
I ran for the entrance — just as a helicopter screamed overhead, the sun-shaped sigil of the Council of Light clear as day on the door, gunfire ripping across the exposed ground.
Pop. Pop. Pop.
Sy launched skyward like a god reclaiming his kingdom. Within seconds, he had the helicopter clutched in his talons, metal screaming as he hurled it into the rocks below.
But another emerged.
And another.
My feet slowed. My chest burned.
I can’t leave him.
Behind me, Kieran and Ash were already fighting — power flaring bright against the darkening sky. Ash hurled a cyclone upward, catching one chopper and sending it spiralling out of control.
The ground shook as it crashed.
Still more kept coming.
I looked around, desperate for a way to help.
Dev was suddenly there.
He caught my arm as I turned, grip firm, grounding, eyes already tracking the chaos above us.
“Seph,” he said urgently. “You need to leave. Now.”
I shook my head. “I can’t.”
“Seph please!”
Gunfire cracked overhead. Soldiers in white mech suits were pouring down the ridge now.
“No!”
Dev followed my gaze, jaw tightening. “You are so fucking stubborn! Fine!”
“If you stay,” he said, voice low and steady, “you stay with me. Do you understand me?”
“I do.”
Another explosion rocked the ground. Ash’s wind tore through the sky, but there were too many angles. Too many targets.
Then I remembered something.
That night in the elevator — when I’d brushed Dev’s skin and felt his power answer mine.
Is it possible?
I looked down at my gloves — at the thin barrier between me and him.
Dev’s eyes widened.
“Seph,” he said carefully. “What are you thinking?”
“Use me,” I said. “I can push your power—just for a few seconds.”
I tore the glove off.
“I don’t know if it’ll work,” I added. “Or what it’ll do to us.”
His gaze dropped to my bare hand, then lifted again.
“My magic isn’t clean,” he said quietly. “It hurts. It always has.”
“I know,” I said. “So does mine.”
A beat.
“Will it hurt you?”
“Yes.”
“And me?”
I hesitated. “I don’t know.”
“Seph—”
“I can handle it,” I said quickly. “I promise.”
He stared at me, his gaze unreadable.
“Then we do it fast,” he said. “And we stop when I say stop.”
He dragged a knife from his belt and cut his palm without breaking eye contact.
Blood welled — bright, red.
“Touch me,” he said. “And don’t fight the rhythm.”
My breath caught — but I pressed my bare hand to his bleeding skin.
My power surged.
For one impossible heartbeat, it flowed through his limits instead of my fear.
Dev’s hand closed over mine, steadying.
“Now,” he said.
I lifted my free hand.
The soldiers nearest us slammed back as if struck by a physical wall, blood bursting from noses and ears as the force hit.
Dark streaks hit the ground around them.
It lasted only a few seconds.
Then Dev growled, sharp and final.
“Enough.”
The connection snapped.
Pain ripped through my skull. I cried out, knees buckling — Dev caught me as I retched violently onto the ground, his arms locked around me, his breath rough but controlled.
“I’ve got you,” he said firmly. “Stay with me.”
My power recoiled, raw and furious, like I’d torn something open inside myself.
Dev pressed his bloody palm to his thigh, sealing the cut with practiced ease, eyes never leaving me.
“No more,” he said quietly. “I won’t let you burn yourself out.”
I nodded weakly.
He raised his voice. “Clear the east side! Get her inside — now!”
As he moved us toward cover, helicopters still screaming overhead, something lodged deep and permanent in my chest:
Dev hadn’t trusted my power.
He had trusted me.
And blood magic never forgets a choice like that.