Chapter 26
Chapter
Twenty-Six
brENTON
Alastor’s pulse was weaker by the time the boat carried us through Vistos’s barrier.
Each flutter felt thinner while the air around us hummed with its magic.
For what felt like the hundredth time, I reached for the tattoo on my palm, the mark that bound me to Eiran.
Each time it’d remained silent, but now it thrummed with this awareness that made me queasy, telling me that Alastor was ready to go, that he didn’t want anyone fighting for his life.
The certainty of it unsteadied me. Who was I to choose for him? To pull him back when he’d decided to let go? Or to stand aside and lose someone I’d bled beside, someone I’d laughed with, someone who was as much family as Teddy was?
My throat burned. I looked at Finley, at the fierceness in her eyes despite the fear. The bond between us flamed, alive and bright and demanding. A living wire that held us together.
She was my foundation.
Alastor lay on the floor of the boat with Finley and me kneeling at his side.
I braced a hand on his shoulder, and Finley’s palm covered mine.
Our magic twined through our bond, my smoke braided with the red threads of her magic, and when we poured it into him, it wasn’t her death magic that flowed through him but one of healing.
It swam through him, not forcing or dragging him back, but holding open the line and giving him the choice to follow the thread back or sever it forever.
Forgive me. Before I could stop them, the words soared through the threads that tied us to Alastor.
Anger and shame burned in my chest, aimed squarely at myself.
I’d been so certain I could keep Finley and me centered, so certain I could control the weight of our magic.
I hadn’t thought about how easily it could break someone else.
It had to have been Finley’s magic that had risen a beat before Alastor fell. The memory curdled inside me.
Finley’s grip on my hand tightened where both our hands pressed against Alastor’s shoulder. His heart fluttered weakly, the threads of our magic weaving through him like fragile smoke, still giving him the option to return if that was what he chose.
A shadow swept over us. Hoshiko. He flew lower, his wings stirring the waves while a low rumble vibrated through the air.
“You didn’t do this, Brenton.” Her soft voice was meant to soothe, but her eyes betrayed the fear that shone behind them. “My magic didn’t do this. I swear it.”
“It wasn’t you.” My throat tightened. “I felt your magic stir within me. I felt its power rise and then . . .” I stared at Alastor, limp on the boat’s floor, blood still wet at the corner of his mouth and at his nose. “And then he fell.”
Her breath caught. Neither of us moved. I wanted to believe the bond we’d forged with our magic wasn’t a weapon against those we loved, but the guilt sat heavy on my chest.
The boat thudded against the sand when we hit the shore. The water lapping against the hull was almost too loud against the stillness of the situation.
She brushed her thumb along my knuckles. “You didn’t hurt him. I know my magic. I know when it lashes out. This wasn’t it.”
The bond between us pulsed as we sent more magic through Alastor. Magic curled in my chest, desperate to mend what I was certain I’d broken.
Hoshiko’s shadow passed over us again, circling in a low protective swoop before he landed with a heavy thud that shook the sand and rippled across the water.
When I looked up, Javier was already running toward us, his boots splashing through the shallow water and onto the boat. The moment he saw Alastor’s still form, color drained from his face.
“Alastor!” His voice cracked on the name, and he almost slipped across the wet deck. He dropped to his knees beside us, his hand hovering but not touching as if he didn’t know where it was safe. “What happened? Is he—”
“He’s alive,” I said quickly, although the words felt like a promise I couldn’t keep.
Javier’s jaw clenched, his gaze moving across Alastor’s face. He reached out at last, his finger trembling when he brushed the blood from his nose. “Don’t do this,” he whispered, his voice barely above a rasp. “Not you too.”
My chest twisted, and I let Javier’s grief bleed through the threads. Not a command but a plea for Alastor to stay, to live.
The response came almost instantly. The stillness I’d felt in him vibrated with the cold certainty of his surrender fracturing. Through the thin veil between life and death, something rippled back. Conflict. Not confusion, but the ache of him caught somewhere between peace and life.
It wasn’t words or even thought, but emotion that pressed against my ribs. Regret. Weariness. But beneath it was the echo of love.
Those who would grieve him surfaced first. Teddy, Javier.
But woven beneath that was the pull of the beyond—of faces waiting on the other side. His brother, Blaise. And even Leanora, sister, captor, yet still blood. A twisted love tugging at him to rest.
Faces flickered in my mind, and Finley’s breath caught as she saw them as well.
Her fingers tightened over mine, the bond’s pulsing making the air tremble. She felt it, the sorrow, the hesitation, the weight of Alastor’s choice, just as clearly as I did.
The tug of death itself pulled through the thread binding the three of us.
Choose life, I urged, the words silent but fierce.
“He needs rest,” I said, peering at Finley. “Will you keep the connection open with me? Just enough to hold him here.”
Understanding flickered in her eyes, and she nodded.
Face still pale, Javier reached for Alastor and gathered the mage with slow, deliberate care as if he worried he might shatter under his hand. “I’ll take him to his tent.”
Finley and I fell in step beside him, matching his pace without speaking. Each breath burned my lungs. Behind us, Hoshiko spread his wings and took flight, his shadows following us as he circled protectively above us.
Willow met us at the edge of the clearing, her eyes sharp with worry. Once Javier set Alastor in the tent, she knelt at his side.
“What happened?” she asked.
“I don’t know,” I answered, crouching beside her. “We were training, and then he just fell.” The word felt too small for what had happened. My magic hummed unsteady under my skin, carrying the memory of Alastor’s collapse.
Willow’s gaze went to Finley and me, assessing with her mouth flattening in a thin line. “You’re both drained,” she said. “Rest. I’ll bind with my dragon’s magic to heal him.”
“Don’t—” The word caught in my throat, wrong and unforgivable. “Don’t heal him.”
She moved her hand back and hissed in a breath.
Javier’s head snapped up, eyes narrowing. “What?”
“We have a connection open for him, should he choose to return.” My gaze fell to Alastor’s slack face, to the dried blood that still clung to him. “Can you keep it open?”
Willow hesitated before her eyes softened, and she nodded in understanding.
Javier’s hands went around my wrist in a tight grip. “You can’t just—” He moved his hand to scrub over his face. His next words came out rough but trembling. “He needs you to heal him.”
I turned to him, expression open so he could see how much this decision hurt me as well.
“You need us to heal him. I get it, Javi. I want him healed and here too.” My throat tightened.
“He was stripped of choice almost every moment of his life. I’m sorry, but I won’t take this from him.
” Not even for Teddy could I force this decision upon Alastor.
Tense and shaking, Javier’s shoulders rose. “So we do nothing?”
“No.” Somehow, the word came out steady, although my chest felt like it might cave. “We stay with him.” The way my friends had stayed with me the day I’d been destined to die. “We let him know we’re here, waiting for him to return. But if he’s ready to rest, we let him.”
My words landed heavy, and for long beats, the tent was silent. Javier’s breath shuddered out, his hands falling uselessly at his side before he gripped Alastor’s hand.
“He doesn’t quit,” he whispered. “You’ve never quit before, Alastor. Don’t start now.”
Finley’s hand slipped into mine, and I held on to the strong rhythm of her pulse.
“Then we wait,” Finley said. “Together.”
Javier’s gaze stayed fixed on Alastor’s still form, and as Willow’s binding flowed through Alastor, I sat on the tent floor, with Finley following suit.
The space felt too small with grief’s unremitting presence.
Finley’s head rested against my shoulder, and the quiet that followed wasn’t quite rest. It was an agonizing silence that stirred my blood.
Willow’s binding glowed at her fingertips, painting Alastor’s body in pale light. Each shimmer was a reminder of the life we may lose.
Javier didn’t move from beside Alastor. His elbows rested on his knees, his head bowed, and each breath was a struggle to keep from shattering. The look in his eyes gutted me, like grief suspended, unsure if it would break.
I wished I could rest the way Willow had suggested, but my thoughts wouldn’t stop turning. Because what if this was all because of me? What if my instinct to protect Finley had twisted our bond into something that struck? The memory of Finley’s power surging within me sat too heavily to ignore.
If I couldn’t control it, if what now lived inside me made me a danger, how could I ever stand beside Finley when she faced Zaicha again? How could I protect the dragons without causing their demise in the process?
Our bond pulsed faintly, as if answering my unspoken questions. Her threads brushed against mine in soft, soothing strokes as she nestled in closer, and her lips brushed against my ear.
“I’ve lived with all of those fears,” she whispered. “Yet you’ve never been afraid of me. My magic, our binding, isn’t what harmed Alastor. But if you want me to withdraw my magic from our bond, I can bind it to my breath. I don’t want you to carry my—”
“I’m not afraid of your magic, Lolli,” I said just as quietly. “I just need to learn to control it. You’ll teach me, though, won’t you?”
She ran her nose along my throat, sending my heart skittering. “I’ll teach you.”
“If you say it wasn’t our binding that harmed him, I’ll stop playing the martyr and believe you.”
She let out a huff of a laugh, and my chest settled at the sound.
For several beats, it felt like this very realm held its breath for us. It was only Finley tucked beside me, Alastor’s shallow breaths, Hoshiko’s wings flapping above the tents, and the faint waves hitting the shore.
Then everything changed.
The air turned cold. Finley gasped, her back going rigid as her magic flared sudden and bright through our bond.
Javier’s head snapped to us while Willow stood to step away.
“Keep Alastor with us,” I told her, my voice strained.
“Brenton—” Finley’s voice broke.
A pull came next. A slow, deliberate tug at the edge of her magic.
Zaicha.
Finley’s breath hitched, and she held a hand to her throat. I didn’t think. I just reached for her, shoving my magic through our bond. Smoke roared to life around us, red threading the familiar gray, but I was careful to keep it away from Alastor and Javier.
“Stay with me, Finley,” I said, voice rough.
I could feel Zaicha’s power like claws scraping at the edges of Finley’s magic.
Hand shaking, she locked her fingers around mine. “She’s testing us.”
I anchored us both, wrapping my magic around hers until it burned through my veins to my blistering skin. The tent pulsed with Zaicha’s presence, souring the scent to ash. Eyes wide, Willow watched us, keeping her binding with Alastor open despite the invisible threat we fought.
Hoshiko’s roar split above us, a sound so deep it shook the earth at our feet. The air vibrated with it, the canvas of the tent snapping.
Zaicha’s pull wrenched once more, hard enough to steal the breath from my lungs.
Our bond grew taut before Zaicha’s power fell away.
With nothing to harness it at, my smoke magic broke free in a violent rush, its power spiraling outward.
Before it could touch anyone, Hoshiko contained the blast. The ensuing silence rang in my ears.
Finley slumped against me, the fight gone from her limbs. I pulled her to me, holding her close, feeling the frantic thud of her heart through our bond.
“What—did the orb’s wielder attack?” Willow asked, her words as shaky as my breath.
“Yes.” I gritted my teeth.
“We fended her off,” Finley whispered, her breath hot against my neck. “We fended her off, Brenton.”
I brushed a strand of damp hair from her face. “We’ll continue fending her off until we destroy her.”
Finley’s hand fisted around my shirt, her magic still trembling beneath her skin.
But then the cold deepened.
Finley stiffened in my arms, a cry tearing from her throat as the bond flared hot enough to sear.
“Brenton,” she gasped.
The pull came again, but this time, Zaicha lunged. Her magic slammed into our bond in a brutal wave. Not prying, but striking. Trying to overwhelm the connection through force. The tether screamed under the strain, vibrating violently between us.
Finley cried out, and her knees buckled as Zaicha’s power clawed deeper, searching for a fracture.
I roared and slammed everything I had into our bond. Not just magic or power but presence. Smoke tore free around us, wild and furious, red streaking through the gray as the bond blared bright.
Before the surge could lash outward, Hoshiko caught it. His power folded around the blast, crushing it and containing the violence before it could touch anyone.
Zaicha pressed harder.
The air split like glass cracking. Pain lanced through my chest as if her hands were wrapped around the bond itself, squeezing and testing for weakness. Finley screamed, clutching at me, and for one terrifying beat, I felt the faintest give and feared we might break.
But Zaicha faltered, and the pressure wavered. Her magic stalled against the bond, exhaustion bleeding through the attack. I felt it; the strain and the cost of shoving so hard.
She struck once more. A final, savage shove. The bond flared white-hot but held.
Zaicha’s presence recoiled, ripping away with a shriek that bled through my ears. The cold evaporated, and warm air rushed in, leaving only ringing silence behind.
Finley sagged against me, trembling but intact. And somewhere, I felt Zaicha retreat.
I breathed in a steady stream, willing my pulse to ease.
We were safe for now.
But for now had never felt so fragile as it did at that moment.