Chapter 35 Malrik
Malrik
The fire crackles.
For the first time in days, nobody is panicking.
Kaia is asleep in Kieran’s arms, her breathing steady, Mouse purring on her chest. Bob has settled near the cave entrance — still on guard, but his edges have softened into something almost relaxed.
Patricia’s notebook is dim. Even Finnick has stopped his constant fidgeting, draped across a rock like a shadow-shaped cat.
And Callum is still unconscious.
Kieran hasn’t moved in over an hour. His eyes are open, faintly glowing, fixed on nothing — the vigilance of someone who’s decided sleep is optional when something precious is in his arms.
But the rest of us?
We’re finally breathing.
Finn is the first to break the silence.
“So.” He stretches his legs toward the fire, groaning dramatically. “That happened.”
Torric snorts. “Which part?”
“All of it?” Finn gestures vaguely. “The sex. The screaming. The bond explosion. The part where Kieran became a living weighted blanket.”
“I am providing a service,” Kieran says without looking up.
“You’re cuddling. It’s cuddling. Just admit it.”
The corner of Kieran’s mouth twitches. He doesn’t deny it.
I feel something loosen in my chest. Not everything — we’re still on a frozen mountain with something wrong waiting at the top — but enough. Enough to remember that we’re not just soldiers marching toward disaster.
We’re also… this. Whatever this is.
Darian shifts against the cave wall.
He’s been quiet since Kaia fell asleep, after he hurried back into his clothes. Pale. Shoulders too tight. I’ve been watching him spiral for the last hour, waiting for the moment he cracks.
Here it comes.
“I shouldn’t have—”
“Try finishing that sentence and I’ll hit you with a rock,” Finn says.
Darian blinks. “What?”
“Seconded,” Torric adds.
“You’re fine, Darian.” Aspen’s voice is gentle but firm. “She’s fine.”
Darian’s jaw works. “But she—”
“Chose you.” I keep my voice steady. Grounded. “She didn’t break because of you. She broke because she finally felt all of us at once. That’s not your fault. That’s just… a lot.”
“Six bonds hitting her at full volume,” Finn mutters. “Honestly, I’m impressed she only had one panic attack.”
Darian stares at me. At Finn. At the others.
Something shifts in his expression. The guilt doesn’t vanish — I don’t think it ever will, not completely — but it stops strangling him.
His shoulders drop.
“She was… loud,” he says finally. Almost to himself.
Finn’s grin spreads across his face like sunrise. “Oh, we know.”
Torric groans. “We were trying not to mention it.”
“Why?” Finn spreads his hands. “It’s not like we didn’t all hear. These cave walls aren’t exactly soundproof.”
Aspen has gone slightly pink. “Can we not—”
“She sounded happy,” Finn continues, ignoring him completely. “That’s the important thing. Very, very happy. Repeatedly.”
Darian flushes. But there’s something else there now — something that looks almost like pride.
“She was loud because I’m talented, Finn.”
The cave goes silent.
Then Torric laughs — a real laugh, not the sharp bark he uses when he’s angry. Aspen makes a choked sound that might be a giggle. Even Kieran’s mouth curves into something that’s almost a smile.
Finn clutches his chest dramatically. “He’s back. The arrogant bastard is back.”
“I’m not arrogant.” Darian’s chin lifts. “I’m accurate.”
“You cried earlier,” Aspen points out. “You don’t get to be confident yet.”
Darian throws a pebble at him. Aspen catches it without looking, frost crackling across his fingers.
“Alright, but seriously—” Finn’s voice softens. “She’s okay because of you. The bond purified. The corruption broke. That’s not nothing.”
Darian looks at Kaia’s sleeping form. Something complicated moves across his face.
“She chose me,” he says quietly. “Even knowing what I was. What I did.”
“She chose all of us,” I correct. “That’s the point.”
The fire pops. Shadows dance across the cave walls. And for a moment, we’re not six men with complicated histories and tangled loyalties and a Valkyrie who’s rewriting everything we thought we knew about bonds.
We’re just… us.
“So.” Finn stretches again, settling more comfortably against the cave floor. “Since we’re apparently having feelings around the campfire — who wants to compare notes?”
Torric stiffens. “Compare what?”
“You know.” Finn waggles his eyebrows. “Notes. Observations. Kaia-related data.”
“Absolutely not,” Aspen says.
“I’m genuinely curious though.” Finn props himself up on one elbow. “She’s different with each of us, right? I felt it through the bond. Like she… shifts. Adapts.”
The question hangs in the air.
I should shut this down. It’s inappropriate. Invasive. The kind of conversation that could go wrong in a hundred different ways.
But Torric speaks first.
“She’s softer with Aspen.” His voice is rough. Almost grudging. “Gentler. Like she’s afraid of breaking him.”
“I noticed that too,” Aspen admits. “She holds back. Worries about my control.”
“With me, she’s—” Torric stops. His jaw works. “Wilder. Like she doesn’t have to be careful.”
“Because you can take it,” Finn says. No teasing this time. Just observation.
Torric nods once.
“She laughs with Finn.” Darian’s voice is quiet. “Even when things are terrible. He makes her laugh.”
Finn’s expression flickers. Something vulnerable underneath the performer’s mask.
“She trusts Malrik to catch her,” Aspen adds. “When she falls. When she breaks. She looks for him.”
I don’t know what to say to that. So I don’t say anything.
“And Kieran?” Finn glances toward where Kieran is holding her. “What’s she like with you?”
Kieran is silent for a long moment.
“Guarded,” he says finally. “Wary. She watches me like she’s waiting for the next betrayal.”
The words land heavy.
“But tonight she let you hold her,” I point out.
“Tonight she was desperate.” Kieran’s voice is carefully neutral. “That’s not the same as trust.”
“It’s a start,” Darian says.
Kieran’s gold eyes shift to him. Something passes between them — not friendship, not yet. But maybe the beginning of understanding.
“Perhaps,” Kieran allows.
Finn yawns dramatically, breaking the moment. “Cool. Great talk. Very emotional. Now can we acknowledge that I had sex in a magical hot spring and it was incredible and I deserve recognition?”
“You deserve a rock to the head,” Torric mutters.
“Malrik was there too,” Finn adds. “In case anyone was wondering.”
“We weren’t,” Aspen says.
“He’s very good with his hands.”
“Finn.”
I pinch the bridge of my nose. “Is there a version of this conversation where you have some dignity?”
“Absolutely not.” Finn grins at me, unrepentant. “Dignity is for people who didn’t just have a threesome with the love of their life in a sacred healing spring while her shadows watched.”
Torric chokes on nothing.
“The shadows watched?” Aspen looks horrified.
“Bob turned around,” Finn says. “Eventually. Patricia took notes.”
“Of course she did,” Darian mutters.
“Speaking of watching—” Finn’s grin turns predatory as he swivels toward Kieran. “Want to explain why you were lurking at the edge of the Berserker hall? Again?”
Kieran’s expression doesn’t change. “I was patrolling.”
“You were watching.”
“I was ensuring her safety.”
“From behind a pillar. While she was between me and Malrik. Very safe. Very noble.”
Torric snorts. “He watched you two at the sanctuary, too. Back when we first came to Absentia.”
“I remember,” I say dryly. “I called him out then as well.”
“And tonight.” Darian’s voice is quiet, but there’s something almost amused underneath it. “During… us. He was at the cave entrance.”
Every head turns toward Kieran.
He remains utterly still. Ancient. Dignified.
“I was standing guard.”
“You were watching,” Finn repeats gleefully. “You’re always watching. At this point it’s basically a hobby.”
“A very dedicated hobby,” Aspen adds, and even he’s smiling now.
“Centuries of discipline,” Torric says, “and you still can’t look away.”
Kieran’s jaw tightens almost imperceptibly. “I take my responsibilities seriously.”
“Uh-huh.” Finn leans back, utterly delighted. “And which responsibility requires you to watch Kaia get railed, exactly? Is that in the ancient dragon handbook?”
“Finn,” I warn, but I’m fighting a smile.
“What? I’m genuinely asking. Is it a protective instinct? A mating thing? Do dragons just… like to observe?”
Kieran’s gold eyes finally shift to Finn. There’s something dangerous in them — but also, beneath it, the faintest flicker of embarrassment.
“I will end you,” he says calmly.
“You won’t.” Finn’s grin is incandescent. “Because then Kaia would be sad. And you’d rather die than make her sad. So I get to mock you forever.”
The laughter that follows is real. Warm. The kind of sound I didn’t know I needed until I heard it.
Even Kieran’s mouth twitches.
We sit in it for a while. Letting the fire burn low. Letting the tension drain out of muscles that have been clenched for days.
Then Kieran speaks again.
“Something in the air changed.”
The warmth doesn’t vanish, but it… shifts. Sharpens.
“When?” I ask.
“A few days ago. Halfway up the ridge.” His eyes are distant. “I thought it was just the mountain at first. The corruption. But it’s not.”
I frown. He’s right — I’ve felt it too. That wrongness that started pressing harder three days back. I assumed it was exhaustion. Stress. The bonds straining under everything we’ve been through.
But now that he says it…
“I noticed it too,” I admit. “Thought it was my imagination.”
“Same,” Torric says. “Figured it was the elevation.”
Darian is quiet for a moment. Then: “It feels like Absentia. But wrong. Like the magic is… curdling.”
“Curdling,” Finn repeats. “Great. Love that. Very comforting.”
Aspen’s frost crackles unconsciously. “Whatever’s at the top of this mountain — it knows we’re coming.”
“Probably.” Kieran’s voice is calm. “But that’s a problem for tomorrow.”
Finn waves a hand. “Seconded. Spooky mountain vibes noted. We’ll deal with it when we deal with it. Right now I’m trying to enjoy the fact that Kaia isn’t screaming.”
“Romantic,” Torric deadpans.
“Realistic,” Finn counters. “I’ve got low standards at this point. ‘Everyone is alive and no one is on fire’ is basically a win.”
“No one is on fire yet,” Torric says.
“See? Optimism.”
The fire crackles. Mouse’s purring is the only sound for a long moment.
I let my gaze drift across the cave.
Finn has sprawled out completely now, one arm flung over his eyes. Torric is still tense, but it’s the normal tension — watchful, not wound to breaking. Aspen has tipped sideways, his head resting against his brother’s shoulder, eyes half-closed.
Darian is lying on his side, finally, finally breathing normally. The tight coil of guilt that’s been wrapped around him for weeks has loosened.
And Kieran…
Kieran is holding Kaia like she’s the most precious thing in existence. His ancient stillness wrapped around her. His gold eyes soft in a way I’ve never seen from him before.
She didn’t break because she doesn’t want us.
She broke because she finally felt how much we all want her.
I close my eyes.
Tomorrow, we face whatever’s waiting at the gate.
Tonight, we rest.
All of us.
Together.