ELZA
The roar of the waterfall is a constant, soothing thunder, a thick curtain of sound that hides us from the world. Inside the cavern, the air is warm and alive, thrumming with the raw magic of the Wildspont. Its pearlescent light fills the space, reflecting in the glowing moss and casting soft, shifting shadows on the stone walls.
We are wounded. All of us. My own body is full of new bruises, and Lyren is exhausted, his small face pale with a weariness that goes beyond the physical. But it is Eoin who is hurt the most. A deep gash runs along his forearm, a parting gift from one of the Crimson Wing warriors, the flesh torn and weeping dark, Vrakken blood.
I sit before him on the smooth stone floor, my meager medical supplies—clean moss and strips of cloth torn from my undershirt—laid out beside me. My dagger is on the other side of the fire I built, a deliberate placement. An act of trust, or perhaps, an admission that the weapon is useless against the complexities of what now lies between us.
He is still. It is his natural state, but this stillness is different from the cold, predatory stillness of the cell. He is not a predatorwaiting to strike. He is a guardian on watch. His gaze is fixed on me, his abyss-black eyes tracking the movement of my hands with a new, watchful intensity that is entirely protective. He allows me into his space, and finally, it does not feel like I am stepping into a cage.
“This will hurt,” I say, my voice quiet in the vast cavern.
He gives a single, almost imperceptible nod, his eyes never leaving my face.
I take a deep, cleansing breath and place my hands on either side of the wound. His skin is cool, as always, but the heat of his body beneath it is a familiar, treacherous fire. This time, however, the terror that usually accompanies it is muted, replaced by a strange, aching tenderness. I close my eyes and call on my power.
The golden blaze of my Purna magic pools in my palms, a stark, warm contrast to the cool, emerald glow of the cavern. I press the light into his flesh, and I feel his muscles tense beneath my touch, a low hiss of breath escaping between his teeth. The magic flows from me into him, and under my hands, I feel the torn muscle and sinew begin to knit themselves back together, the ragged edges of the wound slowly sealing. It is an intimate, draining process, a giving of my own life force to mend his. He saved my life. This is a debt I can repay.
When I am finished, the skin is smooth and whole, a new, silvery scar the only evidence of the injury. I pull my hands back, the sudden loss of contact leaving my skin feeling cold.
Throughout it all, he has not moved, has not looked away from me.
I am about to speak, to say… something, I do not know what, when a small movement catches my eye.
Lyren.
He has been watching us from the far side of the cavern, his small body half-hidden behind a rock formation. Now, hesteps out of the shadows. His fear, which had been a palpable thing during our frantic flight, seems to have been washed away by a child’s boundless curiosity. He walks toward us, his steps hesitant at first, then more certain.
I hold my breath, my entire body going rigid. Lyren stops not in front of me, but in front of Eoin.
Eoin remains perfectly still, his gaze shifting from me to the small boy standing before him. He does not seem to breathe.
Lyren looks at the Vrakken, at the father he has only ever known as a monster in a cage. Then, he reaches out a small, hesitant hand. He does not touch the new scar I have just healed. He turns Eoin’s hand over and gently, so gently, traces the faint, silvery line on his palm. The scar I gave him with my dagger in Haven’s cell. A mark of my defiance, of my fear and hatred.
A profound, shuddering breath leaves Eoin’s lungs, the only sound in the cavern besides the roar of the falls. He does not pull away. He allows our son to touch him, to trace the mark of my past self upon his skin. He looks down at Lyren, and the raw, unguarded emotion in his eyes is a thing of such profound, aching conflict and awe that it makes my own heart ache in response.
In that quiet, impossible moment, I focus on the psychic link that binds us. It is… different. The cold, obsessive focus of the scientist is gone. The possessive, biblical fury of the warrior has banked to smoldering embers. What remains is a deep, churning river of turmoil—I can feel the weight of his choice, the agony of betraying his people, the guilt for the lives lost at Haven. But woven through it all, a steady, unwavering current of pure, protective warmth is flowing from him to me, and to Lyren. It is not an invasion. It is a shield. It is a promise.
He finally looks up from Lyren, his gaze finding mine. The mask of the apathetic Enforcer is gone, stripped away by battleand blood and the touch of his son’s hand. I see the ancient, lonely being Lyren saw all along.
His voice, when he speaks, is a rough, broken sound, stripped of all its formality, raw with an emotion I cannot yet name. He says my name, for the very first time, not as a label, but as a person.
“Elza.”
The name hangs in the air, a revelation, a prayer. He stares me down, and with two words, he tears down the final wall between us.
“I was wrong.”
22
EOIN
They are asleep. Elza is curled on a bed of scavenged moss and cloaks, her arm thrown protectively over Lyren, who is nestled beside her. In the soft, emerald glow of the cavern, they are the picture of a peace they do not have, a security I cannot guarantee.
I stand at the edge of the Wildspont, the swirling, opalescent heart of this place, and I wage a war within myself. For ten thousand years, my mind has been a fortress of cold, clean logic. Now, it is a battlefield.
The equation is simple. On one side, the survival of my species. Millennia of Vrakken history, culture, and life, all slowly being erased by The Fading. Billions of potential lives, all resting on the hope of a single cure. On the other side… her. One human female. The Anomaly. The mother of my son.
The logic is brutal and absolute. The life of one against the future of billions. The cost is statistically insignificant. To sacrifice her is the only rational choice. It is my duty as a Vrakken, as an Enforcer. It is the choice the Matriarch would make without a moment’s hesitation.
