Chapter 21
Talin
The cavern stretched around me in impossible directions, walls that curved both inward and outward simultaneously, floors that existed on multiple planes at once.
Was my body really here? I looked down and saw my legs and feet. Then the world shifted around me and I raised my head, fighting down the nausea.
Alex hung suspended in the center of the cavern, wrapped in chains of shadow and blood-red magic. His head lifted as I approached, golden eyes blazing with recognition and rage.
"Talin." His voice came out hoarse, damaged. "You shouldn't have come back."
"Shut up." I reached for the binding circles around him, my fingers passing through dimensional barriers that shouldn't have existed. The threads there were all wrong—twisted, inverted, knotted into patterns that made my head ache just looking at them. "I'm getting you out."
"She's very brave." Marcus's voice echoed from everywhere and nowhere. "Foolish. But brave."
I didn't look for him. I didn't need to. I felt him woven through every particle of that place, his power the foundation that held the broken dimensions together.
Elias? I reached back along our bond, needing his strength.
I wasn't able to hear him, but his presence wrapped around me, warm and furious and terrified.
I grabbed Alex's thread, the electric blue strand that connected him to Kenya, to Alice, to the world he belonged in. It pulsed weakly beneath my touch.
"I'm taking my cousin home," I told Marcus, still working on Alex's chains. "Your plan failed."
"Did it?" His laughter rolled through the cavern. "Did you really think I needed those binding points for power?"
I froze.
"I needed them destroyed, little Threadwalker.
Needed the barriers weakened between dimensions.
Needed the collective focus of both covens on those four locations.
" His form suddenly materialized in front of me.
Tall and lean, brown eyes gleaming with ancient malice.
"While you were all so busy playing hero. "
The first chain around Alex dissolved under my touch. Three more to go.
I just needed to keep him distracted. I didn't know why he wasn't trying to stop me, but I was going to take advantage of the time I had.
"I know exactly what you're doing," I told him.
"You wanted me here." My hands shook as I reached for the second binding.
"You wanted me to anchor myself to this dimension. "
"Of course I did." Marcus tilted his head, studying me like a curious predator. "Your power really is remarkable, Talin. All that potential, wasted on doubt and fear. You could remake reality itself, given time and training."
"Not interested."
"No?" He stepped closer. "Not even to save your mate? To give yourself the body you think you deserve? To become powerful enough that no one would ever dismiss you again?"
The second chain of shadows snapped. Alex gasped, his body convulsing.
"Don't listen to him," he rasped. "He's lying. It's all lies. Get yourself out. Leave me."
"Not happening." I grabbed the third binding, feeling the magic resist. This one was darker, older. Djinn magic wound through it like poison through veins.
Marcus's voice softened. "Such loyalty. Such determination. You're so much like her, you know."
"Like who?" I asked, genuinely curious as to what he'd say.
"My Alice." A tone of sorrow entered his voice. "It's been so long since I've seen her."
"Your Alice is dead," I said flatly. "You killed her. You killed your brother. You destroyed your own family for power."
"I destroyed them for love." His voice went cold. "But you wouldn't understand that, would you?"
I yanked on the third chain, pouring more power into it than I should have. The thread realm around us rippled.
Careful, Elias warned through our bond.
I smiled at the sound of his voice. So much closer to me now.
I know.
Marcus moved closer still. "I can give you what you want, Talin. A new body. Perfect symmetry. The kind of beauty that makes men fall to their knees."
"I don't want—"
"Don't you?" He smiled, reading me far easier than I would've liked.
"Every day you look in the mirror and see what cancer stole from you, and no matter what he says, you wonder if Elias truly wants you or is just accepting his fate because he really doesn't have a choice.
You could have certainty. You have men falling at your feet. I could make you whole."
The third chain shattered.
One more. The djinn watched, but still didn't try to stop me from freeing Alex…
"You're wrong about Elias." My voice came out steadier than I felt. "He chose me before fate intervened. He wants me exactly as I am."
"Did he?" Marcus circled us then, his power pressing against my consciousness from all sides. "Love based on pity is still just pity, little Threadwalker."
"Stop talking." I grabbed the final chain with both hands. This one fought back, burning my palms with cold fire that had no business existing.
Alex groaned. "Talin, please. Just go."
"Not without you." I poured more magic into the binding, feeling it resist and drawing from the circle in Aunt Judy's living room. The magic here was layered. Marcus's djinn sorcery was twisted around Alex's own blood, creating a lock that required both their powers to open.
"I can't break this one," I whispered to Alex. "Dammit. What do I do? And don't you dare tell me to leave."
The cavern shuddered. Cracks appeared in the impossible walls, revealing nothing beyond them. Not darkness. Not light. Just absolute absence.
"You're running out of time," Marcus said pleasantly. "This dimension is collapsing. And when it goes, everyone anchored to it goes with it." He shrugged. "Well. At least you'll die together."
I looked at Alex. Really looked at him. Kenya's mate. Alice's twin. My cousin. His golden eyes met mine, and I saw acceptance there. Resignation.
"Don't you dare give up," I said quietly. "Kenya is dying, Alex. Do you hear me?" Grabbing his shoulders, I gave him a shake. "She's dying."
The cavern shook harder. More cracks appeared, spreading like spider webs across surfaces that shouldn't have existed.
"Make your choice, Threadwalker," Marcus said.
"You can continue to try to save Alex and doom yourself and your mate.
You can flee and let him die. Or…" He held up one hand, power swirling around his fingers.
"You can accept my offer. Join me. Let me teach you to use your abilities properly.
I'll free Alex, anchor both of you safely, and give you everything you've ever wanted. "
"No."
He looked so affronted, it was almost comical. "Just like that? You won't even consider it?"
"I'd rather die than become like you."
The djinn's expression hardened. "So be it."
He raised his hand, and the cavern's collapse accelerated. The cracks widened. The nothing beyond them pulled harder, trying to drag us into oblivion.
Elias! I screamed across the threads, reaching for him blindly with one hand while I held onto Alex with the other, wishing there was some way he could reach through the dimensions and pull us both out.
The cavern continued its death spiral. The floor beneath us fractured, sections falling away into the hungry void.
Marcus watched me with open interest, curiosity as to what I'd do plain on his face.
With a snarl, I grabbed his thread.
Not the thread connecting him to this dimension. Not the one anchoring him to the real world. I grabbed the thread that bound him to his own past, to the choices that made him what he was, to the moment he chose power over love and sealed his fate.
And I pulled.
Marcus screamed. His form flickering, becoming translucent. "What are you doing?"
"Giving you what you wanted," I said. My hand burned, the pain unlike anything I'd experienced, but I wouldn't let go. "You want to change the past. To save your Alice. To undo your mistakes."
There was genuine fear on his face. "You can't—Threadwalkers don't have that power—"
"You're right. I don't." My vision blurred, the thread cutting into my palm like razor wire. "But I can show you every path you didn't take. Every choice that could have saved her. Every moment you could have chosen differently. Until it drives you mad."
I tangled them around him. All the possible futures where Marcus saved Alice instead of killing her all those years ago. Where he chose love over vengeance. Where he became something better than the monster standing before us.
He collapsed to his knees, slapping his hands over his ears, his power wavering as visions overwhelmed him. "Stop. Stop!"
The final binding around Alex shattered completely, the chains dissolving into mist and memory. His consciousness stirred, weak but free.
"Alex!" I reached for him with my other hand, trying to pull him toward the dimensional barrier while still holding Marcus's thread. "You need to get out. Now!"
"No..." His voice was barely a whisper. "Not leaving…without you."
Marcus's threads were wrapped around my wrist, binding us together as surely as any spell. The more futures I showed him, the tighter they held. And with Alex refusing to escape on his own, I was trapped between saving my cousin and freeing myself.
Talin! Elias's desperate cry echoed through me.
I looked at Marcus, still on his knees, tears streaming down his face as I forced him to witness every path he'd destroyed. I don't know if I can kill him.
He would kill you without hesitation.
I know. The cavern continued collapsing around us, the void creeping closer. But I'm not him.
I tried to drag Alex closer with threads of my own power, but he was dead weight, his djinn magic completely depleted. Every second I held onto Marcus's thread, it cut deeper into my wrists. Every second I stayed, the dimension collapsed faster.
"Let me go," Alex whispered. "Save yourself."
"Never." I pulled harder, but my strength was failing. The void rushed closer, hungry and absolute.
"Tell Kenya I'm sorry."