Chapter 47 Elariya
Elariya
“The Connection Within”
“My dearest Elariya, if you're reading this, then I've lost you, but I hope with these words, your heart will remember me…”
My fingers traced the elegant script, following each loop and curve of ink as though I could absorb the words through touch alone. Wolfe’s journal lay open in my lap, the worn leather soft beneath my palms, its pages filled with his careful handwriting.
I had only just begun reading. It was the early hours of the morning—we hadn’t long returned home.
Wolfe had business to attend to, so while he went out with the Bloodsworn, I claimed a chair by the window and opened his journal.
As I read, I could hear his voice in my head. Low. Steady. Like he was sitting beside me instead of miles away. Every word on these pages carried the weight of him—the essence of who he was when no one else was watching.
The realization settled over me, illuminating everything I’d been too scared to see. And now I was holding proof of it in my hands.
I read for the next few hours, absorbing every moment Wolfe had held sacred—the day he first met me, the day he first kissed me, the day he realized he was in love with me.
The sun rose, the morning light growing stronger, and I hadn’t even reached halfway through the journal. There was still so much left to uncover. Arielle would be along soon to fetch me—we were meant to go to Hyxian today.
But I couldn’t pull myself away from Wolfe’s words. So I kept reading, telling myself it would only be until it was time to get dressed.
You were angry with me the day you first flew Hedion.
You thought I was furious because you had flown him without permission. You thought I was lecturing you about recklessness and strategy—like I cared more about the ring than you.
But I was never angry about any of those things.
I was angry because I couldn’t tell you how terrified I was.
You, a half-human, half-mage, flew a dragon. It was a wonderful achievement, but all I could see were a thousand ways it could have ended wrong. A misstep. A wingbeat at the wrong angle. A shock of fear. I have seen warriors fall from less.
Being furious with you was easier than telling you the truth.
The truth was that if you had fallen from that sky, it would have killed me too.
I have lost enough in this lifetime. I will not lose you to pride or inexperience or fate’s cruelty. If that makes me overbearing, then so be it.
I would rather you hate me for caution than never see you again…
My heart squeezed, and I paused, letting the words settle. I remembered my own journal entry from that day—the day that seemed to shift everything between us, nudging us toward where we stood now.
It was comforting to read these intimate truths about Wolfe, but what I truly longed for were the memories themselves.
I wanted to remember us and all the things he’d written about—the happiness, the anger, the rage, the love. All of it. I wanted to feel it, not just imagine it from the words on a page.
Still unwilling to let go of him, I read a little longer. An hour passed before I looked up again, startled by a knock at the door.
A quick glance at the timepiece told me everything. Ten. Time to go—and I wasn’t even dressed yet.
“Come in,” I called.
Arielle came in with a bright smile that flickered with uncertainty when she noticed the journal. “Morning. I wasn’t sure if you’d be awake. Thought I’d find you sleeping, not reading.”
“Why do you think I’d be sleeping?” I chuckled.
“The mating bond. I hear it can wear you out.”
I shook my head. “I’m fine.”
“That’s what you said two days ago, and then you went missing with your mate.” She crossed the room and lowered herself into the bay seat.
I pulled a face at her.
“I take it everything went well on your little getaway.” Mischief lit her eyes.
I couldn’t stop myself from blushing. “It did.”
“Good. So what’s this you’re reading? We need to get going.”
I held up the journal. “Wolfe gave this to me. It’s a journal he made for me, from last month’s reset.”
Arielle pressed a hand to her heart and drew in an awed breath. “My Gods… he did that? Wolfe?”
I nodded. “He did. And everything he’s written is beautiful. I couldn’t stop reading. And look—” I showed her what was left. “There’s still so much more.”
“Wolfe Nightblade never ceases to amaze me. He truly does love you.” Her expression softened as she spoke.
“It looks that way.”
“And you?” She did that thing I’d noticed others doing—searching my eyes as if they could read how I felt there. “How do you feel?”
I exhaled, thinking of how far I’d come in such a short space of time. The last time we had this kind of conversation, I told her I felt nothing. Now I felt like a different person.
“He has my heart, Arielle. All of it. And now that I’m here—so close to the next reset—I want to fight for the life we could have.”
She nodded, conviction steady in her eyes. “I want to fight for it for you, too. More than ever. The guys want to try the spell to find the ring on Monday. I think it’s a good idea. I think you’ll be ready by then.”
Monday was good. It would give me a few more days to practice and learn with Magdalena.
“I think if you try, we’ll know where we stand,” she continued, her voice quieter now.
“We’ll be able to see how much more you need to do.
It’ll give us a benchmark. And if the spell doesn’t work, we may still have time to adjust before the next reset.
Maybe that means pushing you toward the stage where you claim your dragon. ”
I hadn’t even considered that.
It felt so far away. Everything I’d read said you needed a certain level of power to claim your familiar. I was nowhere near that. I’d hoped I might regain my memories first, but like everything else, there was no guarantee.
I was figuring it out as we went—learning, failing, adjusting, and hoping it would be enough.
“I’m not ready for familiar training.”
Arielle looked like she couldn’t disagree. “Let’s hope you don’t need it yet.”
“I really hope so. I just… I need to understand my power.”
“You will. You’re closer than you think.”
I was close. Not to perfection, but to the next step.
Starting today, Magdalena would teach me how to anchor myself within the continuum. I could grasp the threads. Now I needed to learn how to hold them long enough to follow the flow—long enough to weave.
I pressed a hand to my head. “I’m trying not to freak out about how little time we have left. I don’t want to prepare for another reset, Arielle. I just don’t. Can you imagine me doing that? After everything that’s happened. After coming so damn far.”
The lightness in her face faded. She folded her hands in her lap. “I don’t want to imagine it either. But jokes aside—now that the mating bond has eased, you should have more clarity. You’ve been doing well. I think today will go well.”
I released the breath I was holding. “I pray so.”
“Go get dressed. We’ve got another ten minutes. We’re meeting Magdalena outside Hyxian. She’s taking us on a little field trip.”
“Sounds interesting.”
“Knowing her, it will be.”
Hopefully today’s lesson would give me more grounding.
I would make it so.
***
The entrance to the Cave of Souls did not look like much from the outside.
No grand arch. No carved sigils announcing its importance. Just a split in the mountainside where stone had cracked centuries ago, the opening narrow enough that it seemed the world had simply exhaled and left a seam behind.
But the moment I stepped across the threshold, I felt it.
The air changed.
It was cooler inside, but not cold. The kind of cool that wrapped around your skin and settled into your bones. The stone beneath my boots hummed faintly, almost imperceptibly, like something vast breathing beneath the surface.
Light did not enter the cave so much as linger. Pale blue glows pulsed softly along the walls, veins of mineral or magic threaded through the rock like frozen lightning. And beneath it all—layered so faintly I almost mistook it for imagination—were whispers.
Whispers within echoes, that bounced off the walls.
Magdalena walked ahead of Arielle and me.
“This,” Magdalena said quietly, glancing over her shoulder, “is where time does not move forward. It folds.”
I swallowed and stepped further inside.
“The Cave of Souls was not a resting place for the pure. Nor was it a prison for the damned,” she continued. “It was where unfinished things gathered. Souls who could not move on. Souls searching for something lost. Souls tethered to the world by longing, regret, love, vengeance.”
“Are they here now?” I asked looking around. The idea of seeing ghosts did not exactly thrill me.
“Always.”
I gave her a stiff smile, while Arielle shook her head at me.
“Over centuries, their echoes converged here, layering over one another until the cave itself became a living continuum.” Magdalena pointing here and there. “A place where past and possibility co-existed, suspended in the ether.”
The sound of her footsteps rippled outward, and for a brief second the air shimmered with threads of silver light flickering like hairline fractures in reality before vanishing again.
She stopped and faced me.
“At the moment, you struggle to hold the continuum,” she gave me a warm smile. “Here, it is already gathered for you.”
I smiled at that. “So, it makes it easier?”
“It does, but only while you are here. That said, it is always easier to replicate magic when you’ve felt it before. You know what you’re looking for. That is why we come here.”
“I used to come here when I wanted to quiet my mind,” Arielle said in a low voice. “It may sound weird because there are lost souls here.”
Magdalena smiled at her. “Mages come here for all sorts of reasons. Sadly, it is only those gifted with the ability to use time who truly wield the magic converging in this remarkable place.”
The hum in the air shifted, pressing gently against my skin.
Then I feel it…
The threads.