The Guardian's laughter echoes around us, coming from all directions at once. "Clever. But temporary. Your energy willfade. The shadow realm will drain you until nothing remains. And when your light dims, I will consume you both."
Maybe it's right. My limbs already ache with exhaustion I shouldn't feel this soon. Channeling ley energy through dimensions is burning through my reserves faster than I can replenish them.
But I'm not planning to be here long enough for that to matter.
"Where's the anchor point?" My voice comes out rough, strained. "The thing holding this realm together."
Jonah goes still. His mind races, processing. "You can sense it?"
"I can see it." And I can, now that I'm looking with intent rather than panic. My photographer's eye translates the chaos into patterns, finds structure in the madness. Ley lines exist here too, corrupted but visible to someone who knows how to look. They all converge toward a point deeper in the realm, pulled like water down a drain. "It's that way."
Moving before he can argue, I push forward. The golden sphere moves with us, our bond maintaining the protective barrier as we navigate through the landscape that shifts beneath our paws. Shadow creatures follow but keep their distance, circling like sharks.
Jonah matches my pace, his larger bear form surprisingly agile across terrain that opens chasms without warning. "The anchor point will be heavily guarded. When I found it before, I couldn't get close enough to do damage."
"You were alone before." A chasm yawns open directly in my path. I leap, landing on stone that shouldn't exist at the angle it does. "Now you have me."
Pride and fear war in him. Both emotions bleed through our connection, raw and honest. He wants to keep me safe, wants tosend me back through the tear. But he knows we need to do this together.
The convergence grows stronger as we run. Tainted ley energy pulses ahead of us, twisted into something wrong. My fresh sensitivity to the lines makes it painful to approach, like walking toward a fire that's burning too hot.
The empty space opens into a vast chamber, and the anchor point looms before us.
Massive. A construct of corrupted ley energy and shadow matter, woven together into a pillar that stretches from the stone floor into the nothing above. But it's not empty. Faces press against the surface from inside, mouths open in silent screams. Souls. Trapped beings whose despair feeds the Guardian's power.
The sight tears a roar from my throat. Not conscious thought. Pure fury from somewhere primal and absolute. The sound carries every ounce of rage I have for what this thing has done, is doing, to innocent beings who became lost in the wrong place at the wrong time.
"You see now," the Guardian's voice whispers from the construct itself. "This realm exists on suffering. On isolation. On the fear and despair of those who became lost. Your light is nothing compared to centuries of accumulated darkness."
"We'll see about that." Planting my paws, I dig claws into stone for purchase. My muscles coil, every fiber straining as I reach deep into the ley line connection. The power burns as it flows through me, searing along pathways that weren't meant to channel this much energy this fast. Golden light blazes brighter, so intense it casts shadows in a realm that shouldn't have them. Not just my own energy now, but pulling from the lines themselves, using our bond as a conduit to channel raw power into this corrupted place.
Heat builds under my fur. The stone beneath my paws begins to crack from the energy pouring through me. My vision edges with white, the strain of holding this much power making my eyes water.
Jonah charges the anchor point while I focus on maintaining the flow. His massive bear form slams into the construct with devastating force. The impact sounds like a building collapsing. Cracks spider across the surface, and the faces trapped inside wail soundlessly. His claws tear at the woven darkness, muscles bunching and releasing with each strike. Each swipe rips chunks away that dissolve into nothing, but the construct tries to repair itself, shadow matter flowing like living tar to fill the gaps.
He roars in frustration and hits it again, harder. His shoulder drives into the weakening structure. Something cracks—the construct or his bones, impossible to tell. Blood streaks his fur where the corrupted energy burns on contact, but he doesn't stop. Can't stop.
More power flows through the bond, feeding him strength even as exhaustion claws at me. The golden barrier around us pulses with each heartbeat, expanding and contracting like lungs breathing light into darkness.
The Guardian screams.
Shadow forms erupt from every surface, attacking us from all sides. But the golden barrier holds, burning through anything that gets too close. I'm the shield. Jonah's the weapon.
Together, we're unstoppable.
Or we would be, if exhaustion wasn't dragging at my limbs. Channeling this much power through a body that's barely learned to be a bear is costing me. My vision blurs at the edges. My legs shake with effort.
The Guardian senses my weakness. Its voice slides into my mind, bypassing my ears entirely. Images flood my consciousness. The car accident that killed my parents. Thefoster homes where I never quite fit. The moment Derek told me I wasn't worth the effort. Every abandonment, every rejection, every time someone chose to leave me.
"You're alone," the Guardian whispers. "You've always been alone. Even now, even bonded, you know he'll leave eventually. They all leave. You're not worth staying for."
The words hit harder than any physical attack. Old wounds tear open, bleeding despair I thought I'd healed from. My concentration wavers. The golden light flickers.
Jonah falters too. The Guardian is showing him his six months here. The isolation. The corruption spreading through his bear. The certainty that he'd never escape, never see home again, never find the mate his instincts insisted was waiting.
"This is truth," the Guardian hisses. "Suffering. Loss. Solitude. Everything else is illusion. Light is temporary. Shadow is eternal."
No.
