chapter thriteen
ELYSIA
Another month has passed since I was in the archives with Sirena, and we’re no closer to finding where a Council member’s personal records might be kept. Even if we do find out, and somehow manage to gain access, it’s a shot in the dark. One I’m not entirely sure will be worth the risk.
Right now, my focus is supposed to be on the mat in front of me.
I kneel across from Kaden, the air between us thrumming with restrained irritation.
Instructor Seraphine had all but demanded these private sessions after our last…
incident. Apparently, when a bonded pair shakes an entire tower from anger, it becomes everyone’s problem.
Instructor Seraphine stands behind us, arms folded, her voice calm but edged with warning. “Now, I want you both to focus this session. The sooner you learn to stay in sync daily, the easier it’ll become to control your echoed emotions.”
Across from me, Kaden’s lips twitch into that infuriating smirk he wears like armour. “Shall we try again, Elysia darling?”
I roll my eyes at the way he purrs my nickname, the smugness dripping from every syllable.
I place my hand in his, his palm warm as his fingers curl around mine easily.
Electric sparks prickle against my skin, tiny bursts of energy crackling where we touch.
I inhale sharply, willing the flush in my chest to fade, hoping it doesn’t echo through the bond.
Instructor Seraphine’s voice softens. “As you’ve done before, focus on your breathing. Let your rhythms align, when your breathing synchronises, your hearts will follow.”
The room falls quiet, the only sound our shared breaths in the still air. His mismatched eyes lock on mine, steady and unyielding.
For once, there’s no mockery there, just focus… and something else I can’t name.
I draw in a breath, exhale in time with him.
Again. Again.
Our breathing falls into rhythm.
I feel his heart start beating in time with my own and then our magic rising to the surface of my skin, slow and eager. My eyes flutter closed as a dizzying pressure crowds my senses. My breath catches, then the world tilts, and when I open my eyes again, I’m no longer in the meditation room.
A battlefield stretches before me.
The air is thick with smoke and iron, the metallic stench of blood clawing at my throat. Sulphur burns my nose from a lightning wielder’s strike somewhere in the chaos, the sharp ozone tang cutting through the rot of death.
The ground is slick beneath my boots, mud, blood, and ash blending until I can’t tell one from the other. The sky burns orange with firelight, buildings collapsing like paper as flames devour them whole.
Raw, endless screams echo around me.
Bodies litter the earth. Dozens. Hundreds even.
Some still twitching; others already cold.
Then, across the battlefield, two familiar mismatched eyes meet mine… Kaden.
But not as he is now.
This version is smaller and more fragile, no older than seven. His face is streaked with dirt and tears, cheeks swollen and red from crying. He kneels in a pool of blood that reflects the burning sky, his tiny hands trembling violently as he clutches a woman in his arms.
Her face is unmistakably his mother’s, the same sharp cheekbones and full lips, her hair matted with sweat and blood. Both her eyes are green but now vacant, the life having long left them.
A gaping hole splits through her abdomen, as if something massive and merciless had impaled straight through her… ice perhaps, or light itself.
The wound is catastrophic.
Her lower ribs splintered like shattered porcelain, the jagged ends glistening red. Her intestines spill from the wound in ribbons, the blood pooling beneath them spreading in slow, lazy ripples.
Kaden’s young form shakes so violently that it looks like he might shatter. His cries are hoarse and broken.
“M-Mumma, please…” His voice wavers, choking on the words. “P-please wake up… please…”
When she doesn’t move, he presses his small hands against the wound as he tries to hold her together, his fingers slipping, slick with her blood, as if his sheer will could bring her back to life.
A sob tears through his throat, high and strangled, so full of anguish it rips through me.
“Mumma.” A sob, “I love you, please don’t go.” He pleads, the words spilling out between gasps. “P-please don’t leave me, I’ll be good, I promise, just… just wake up”
I can’t breathe as a band of grief tightens around my ribs, and tears burn my eyes. My heart fractures as I start toward him, instincts overtaking logic. I need to reach him, to hold him, to tell him he isn’t alone and that somehow… somehow, it’ll be alright.
The world narrows to his small shaking form and her lifeless body. I’m nearly there, I’m just within reach. My hand reaches out to hold him, but as I crouch down to pull him into my arms, an invisible force slams into me.
My vision fractures into shards of colour, pain explodes behind my eyes, and the battlefield dissolves as I’m sucked backwards into shadow. I jolt, air tearing into my lungs as I’m thrown back into the meditation chamber.
Kaden sits before me, eyes wide and wild, those mismatched colours now storm-dark and feral. His chest heaves, and his hand tightens around mine before ripping it away, the connection snapping abruptly.
His shadows whip around him like a storm barely contained, snarling in response to his rage.
Instructor Seraphine’s voice cuts through the air, sharp with concern. “Kaden…”
But he’s already on his feet, jaw clenched so hard I hear it crack. Without another word, he stalks from the room, the door slamming behind him hard enough to rattle the runes carved into the walls.
And I’m left kneeling there, heart still racing, with the echo of a little boy’s grief haunting the edges of my mind.
For a long moment, I don’t move.
I focus on my breathing instead, slow and calming breaths until the room steadies and the ache settles somewhere manageable. When I finally rise, Instructor Seraphine is beside me, her hand warm and grounding at my elbow.
“Are you alright?” she asks gently.
“Yes… yeah I’m okay,” I say after a beat.
She squeezes my arm. “Good. Okay, well… you better get going, go on.”
I nod, gathering what remains of my composure, then slip from the room and into the corridor. Rune-light flickering off dark grey stone with every footstep.
The walk toward the lecture hall feels longer than usual. I half-expect to see Kaden pacing ahead of me somewhere, shadowed and furious, but there’s no sign of him.
He’s gone. Long gone.
The bond hums faintly, but it’s distant and tightly leashed, like a door slammed shut from the other side.
By the time I reach the lecture hall, the noise inside pulls me back into myself. I spot Brynn immediately and slide into the seat beside her just as Professor Aric begins the lecture. She glances over, reading my expression with unsettling ease.
“Synchronisation class?” she murmurs.
“Yeah,” I say quietly.
Sirena leans forward from the row behind us, flipping my plait over my shoulder as her arms circle around me from behind “How was it?”
Enzo snorts. “From the looks on her face, I’d say it was traumatising, right?”
I inhale a sharp laugh, “It was definitely intense.”
“If it makes you feel better, we find it quite challenging too,” Odette adds quickly, “Very challenging, actually”
Enzo groans under his breath. “I nearly threw up the first time—”
“Gods, don’t remind me.” Odette cuts in, paling slightly, “The sound of you gagging alone makes me feel ill.”
Sirena chuckles above my shoulder, “You two are so dramatic. We personally didn’t find it that bad.”
“I actually found it quite enjoyable,” Thane adds from behind me. “Feeling Sirena’s emotions on a deeper level.”
Odette scoffs. “Yeah, well, that’s because you two are disgustingly perfect.”
Thane’s mouth curves as he leans closer to Sirena. “You hear that, Angel? We’re perfect.”
“Fuck yeah, we are.” She says, tossing him a wink.
Brynn laughs softly. “We found it easy too and actually kind of fun.”
“Of course you did,” Enzo mutters, rolling his eyes. “You two are perfect as well.”
“I mean, obviously.” Ronan says, head leaning back into his hands, “It was honestly pretty cool though. Super fucking weird, but cool.”
I blink. “None of you found it… disorienting?”
Brynn frowns. “Disorienting how?”
I hesitate, then lower my voice. “Like you weren’t just feeling your bonded, but you were inside their mind. Seeing things you were never meant to see.”
A beat of silence passes.
“Uhm…” Enzo says slowly, “No?”
Brynn tilts her head. “That didn’t happen to us, we only felt each other's emotions on a deeper level.”
Sirena shakes her head, concern flickering across her face as she looks at me. “Us neither. We felt emotions, memories brushed past in flickers, but nothing like that. What did you experience?”
I swallow. “I was walking through one of Kaden’s memories… quite literally. Everything spun for a second, and my vision went blank, then when I could see again, a memory unfolded around me, and I was able to walk around as it played out.”
Ronan’s smile fades, just slightly. “That doesn’t sound normal.”
Odette leans closer, eyes gleaming with curiosity she unsuccessfully tries to soften. “What kind of memory?”
I look down at my hands, thumb tracing my ring. “A childhood one. It’s not really my place to share.”
Sirena leans off my shoulder, exhaling slowly as she leans back in her chair. “That explains why I saw him storming through the corridors all fury and shadow.”
I nod once. The echo of his grief still pressing against my ribs.
“Well,” Brynn says after a moment, clearly trying to lighten the mood, “Leave it to you to unlock the extra terrifying version of a soulbond.”
I chuckle as Enzo speaks up, “Like her soulbond to Reinheart isn’t already terrifying enough.”
“Clearly, I like adding more fuel to the fire.” I tune, but it’s only half a joke.
Thane chuckles, “True. If there is one thing you excel at, it’s pissing Kaden off.”
That earns a ripple of laughter among the group, just loud enough for Professor Aric to stop mid-sentence, his sharp gaze cutting our way until we all straighten and feign innocence. Once he resumes, the tension eases again.
Ronan leans over Brynn, his voice dropping as he offers a reassuring smile. “You alright though?”
“Yeah,” I nod, “I’m okay. It was just… disorientating as hell.”
He nods and presses a quick, firm kiss to the back of my hand before pulling away like it’s the most natural thing in the world. Professor Aric’s voice continues to fill the hall around us, dragging me into the lecture.
By the time the day’s classes finally end, I feel hollowed out from the inside, Kaden’s emotions having rolled through me in relentless waves. They tangle with my own until my thoughts begin to spiral, tightening until my head aches with the strain of it.
When I finally return to the suite, it’s deathly silent.
Kaden never returned for the rest of our lessons. All day, I could feel the torrent of his emotions lashing at me through the bond, grief and fury twisting together, clawing down the tether that connects us.
By evening, the storm dulled to a dull hum. A haze of alcohol, if my own buzz is anything to go by… but he’s not here. The suite is empty, not even the faintest trace of his magic lingering in the air.
Worry begins to creep in like ivy. I’m not sure if it’s Kaden I’m worried for… or the broken little boy I now see when I think of him.
I move through the suite with quiet steps, my now bare feet whispering against the polished wood.
In the kitchen, I flick my wrist and the hearth flares to life, flames curling around the kettle with a soft hiss.
The faint glow casts a golden hue across the counters, and flickering shadows dance like ghosts on the walls.
I fill the kettle and set it back down, the silence closing in around me.
It’s the kind of quiet that hums too loud, the kind that makes your thoughts echo. My fingers fidget with the ring on my finger as I wait for the storm I expect to come crashing through the door… but it never does.
The kettle’s low whistle pulls me back to the present. I pour the water, add a pinch of moonleaf and rose petals, and watch the steam curl upward in delicate tendrils. The scent is soft and sweet, settling my nerves but not quite silencing the unease threading through me.
Normally, I’d relish this quiet. Tonight, it feels wrong, and the darkness feels alive. Like it’s reaching for me, wrapping invisible fingers around my throat.
Tea in hand, I slip toward my quarters. The door shuts behind me softly with a wave of my hand, then I set the cup on the bedside table and begin to change, peeling off my leather pants and cotton top.
My dagger lands on the bed beside me, its star-iron blade glinting under the moonlight’s pale touch.
I slide a silver silk nightgown over my head, the hem brushing my knees. With a soft tug, I release my hair from its usual plait. The strands fall loose down my back, blue threading with silver where the moonlight kisses it.
I sink onto the bed, limbs heavy and the scent of rose tea clinging to the air. My fingers find the ring again, tracing its familiar edges as I breathe, slow and steady, matching each inhale and exhale to Kaden’s through the bond. It’s become a habit; one I can’t quite break.
There’s something strangely soothing in it, in the rhythm of him, the subtle weight of his presence threading through my chest.
I finish my tea and slide under the midnight-blue sheets, the fabric cool against my skin. A while passes and my eyes finally flutter closed, exhaustion pressing down heavily, and soon I’m adrift.