Earth.
Normal.
Safe.
My heart slams hard in my chest, the reaction immediate and impossible to hide. For a second—just one—I can see it. I can feel it.
And then the bond flares.
It’s not painful. Just… there.
Aware.
I look up, and Varek is already watching me.
There’s no accusation in his expression or anger. Just awareness.
Guilt crashes in right behind the hope. Because I want that. I want home… and I want him.
And I don’t know how those two things exist in the same future without something breaking.
My throat clogs as I force myself to look away, back to the room, back to the problem in front of us. Because whatever that medallion is, it changes everything.
And not one of us is walking out of this clean.
CHAPTER
FIFTEEN
The world does not shift so muchas it shatters.
A low, concussive boom rolls through the stone beneath our feet, deep enough to rattle bone, sharp enough to silence every voice in the room in the same breath. The sound doesn’t fade. It echoes, reverberating through Dathanor like the warning of something vast and unstoppable tearing at its foundations.
Then the second alarm hits. This one is different. It’s not the rising, searching wail from before. This is a full-throated, brutal scream of sound that leaves no room for doubt.
We’re under attack.
Everything moves at once.
Air that had been thick with tension snaps into motion, bodies shifting, weapons lifted, voices rising not in panic but in command. Someone shouts from the corridor, the words half lost in the noise but unmistakable in intent.
“They’re through the south barricade!”
Another crash follows, closer this time, and dust shakes loose from the ceiling in a fine, choking rain.
Varek is already moving. He doesn’t rush or react blindly. Command takes hold of him like armour, his posture locking into something immovable, something that turns chaos intoshape. Orders start leaving his mouth before most of us have even taken a full breath. “Reinforce inner routes. No collapse points—hold them.”
Kael is at his side instantly, relaying, redirecting, his own voice cutting cleanly through the noise as fighters break off to carry out commands. Shanae is already moving for the map table. She drags it into clearer space, issuing instructions with ruthless precision.
Solan doesn’t speak. He simply reaches for his weapon, which tells me everything I need to know about what’s coming next. Sonny swears under his breath and straightens, every trace of humour gone.
And as for me, my gaze snaps to Varek, and our bond surges. He’s aware of me the same way I’m aware of him. I feel the spark of his attention, the quick, instinctive check that hits like a pulse under my skin.
Safe.
For now.
“Pax.”
