Chapter 46 Chelsea
Chelsea
Something tugs at me before I’m fully awake.
The bond.
It feels thinner.
I reach for it instinctively. It’s there—holding on by a string.
Eryx.
He’s in the dream room, Nightmare informs me.
So Nightmare finally speaks. Its voice is faint. Distant. Like it's already halfway gone.
I’m sad to leave you, it whispers. You were brilliant, Chelsea. Our beautiful…
And then silence.
Eryx told me he would do this. But feeling it is different.
After this, my magic will never be mine in the same way again.
He has to know that.
I push my feet into slippers, grab a robe and slip my arms through it. I unlock the door and open it. Echo slides through first, giving me a moment to take in the shadows. In all my worry today I must’ve not noticed, but they’re thinner—faded, like they’re a whisper away from disappearing.
That’s how this feels—that I’m also a whisper away.
I race down the hall, my slippers scraping against the stone floors as I barrel toward his room.
I round a corner and there’s the door. As soon as I see it, a violent suction of power grips me, tugging so I almost slam into it.
I press my palm to the door. “Eryx.”
No answer.
I pound on the door. “Stop this. Please!”
Through the thick wooden door I hear him chanting, something low, ancient. And on the edges of the door, I see power leaking through. It’s dark, inky black, with just a touch of gold.
I gasp and reach for it. My fingers brush it, and it shrinks away, like a snail tucking its head back into its shell.
There won’t be any more gold roses after this. The thing that proved we were meant for each other. Gone. Just like the claws. Just like the fierce feeling.
Just like everything that made me more.
“Eryx, please!”
But his chanting intensifies, and the pull of his magic ignites inside me. The power coils like Eryx is pulling it like a thread.
A low hum takes over my body. It grows louder and the grip on my power tightens.
My breath staggers.
The magic leaking from the door darkens. His nightmare power devours the gold.
His grip on my power grows even tighter. I fall to my knees as the shadows around me grow, deepen, become vicious.
I feel Eryx on the other side—sad, hopeless.
Devastated.
He knows there won’t be any more roses.
He feels it, too.
The thread inside me stretches farther than it should. It burns. I grind my teeth until my jaw aches.
My fingers tighten on the door. “Eryx.”
My voice breaks.
For a heartbeat the pull falters. He’s hesitating.
“Please,” I whisper.
And then he pulls harder.
The burn moves up my stomach into my arms, down my legs.
When it's almost unbearable, the thread snaps.
Not splits. Snaps.
I feel it in my soul—the moment the bond breaks. The gold and black magic shatters into a thousand pieces, splintering into the air like dying stars. And I feel everything drain out of me.
The claws.
The power.
The connection to Eryx.
The piece of Nightmare in my mind.
All of it. Gone.
Something inside me howls—deep, guttural. Not from pain.
From loss.
Loss of the magic that made me feel fierce. Loss of the claws that proved I could be a monster. Loss of Nightmare's voice in my head. Loss of the bond that made Eryx and me one.
Nothing after this moment will ever be the same.
The last of it drains from me.
Through blurred vision, I see Echo in the corner. It whimpers once. Then it starts to fade—edges dissolving like smoke.
Echo was made from our magic. Gold and black together.
And now our magic can't exist as one.
I reach for it, but Echo's already gone.
Just like everything else we created.
I reach for the bond—for that connection to Eryx that's been constant for weeks.
Nothing.
Empty space where he used to be.
My knees give out. I collapse against the door.
On the other side, I hear him. A broken sound like he's crying.
We're both losing this. But he chose it.
And the dark takes me with it.