Bálint’s heart is in turmoil. Torn from Alice during the splintering of the portal, he is haunted by the moment he couldn’t save her—and the guilt of not knowing where she is. But when Alice unexpectedly reappears in the arms of a stranger, the sharp sting of jealousy ignites a storm inside him. Is their bond truly unbreakable… or has destiny charted a different path?
As the mysteries of the Elementals unravel and danger draws closer, Adaline and Bálint must confront the secrets within themselves—and the truths that may change everything.
Because on this isle, even the elements choose sides… and hearts are tested in the crucible of magic and trust.
Part V
Different Paths
Chapter Twenty-Two
The dizzying colors of the portal streaked past Bálint and Adaline. He tightened his grip around Adaline’s waist as the portal thread beneath them shuddered, unraveling in sizzling cracks of unstable energy. The thread—a once-glowing ribbon of light—flickered violently beneath them, like the frayed edge of a storm cloud ready to split apart.
“Can you hold it together?” he asked, his voice low but steady.
Adaline shook her head, strands of her brown hair snapping in the wild current around them. Her expression was calm, but her eyes betrayed the storm raging within.
“The energy’s too erratic and unstable—it keeps slipping through my control.” She glanced at the surrounding streams, which pulsed and danced like serpents made of light and heat. “I’ve never felt anything like this,” she said, her voice tight. “It’s alive.”
Bálint gritted his teeth, his eyes sweeping the fractured horizon. Threads snapped and reformed all around them, like broken bridges between worlds. Through the cascading light, he caught glimpses of his friends—Zohar spiraling into a streak of blue, Jabir shouting joyfully as he launched off another thread, Alice vanishing in a glimmering bubble of violet light.
“We’re running out of time,” he said. “I’ve been watching the others disappear. There’s a rhythm to it—barely. A thread opens every few seconds. We’ll jump on the next one.”
Adaline’s fingers curled into his shirt. “And then what?”
Bálint met her gaze, his golden eyes burning with resolve. “Then I shift and carry us to safety.”
She exhaled slowly, nodding once. “If you can.”
“I will. I wouldn’t let anything happen to you,” he said.
They held onto each other in silence, neither saying what they both feared—at least what he feared. That they might not make it.
He tried to push his doubts aside as their bodies were buffeted by raw current. The moment stretched until he felt pulled, not only by his fears, but by the cosmic forces around him. A shudder ran through him when the portal groaned, the remaining threads coiling like snakes preparing to strike.
Then—he saw it—an opening.
“There!” he shouted. “Get ready!”
Adaline tensed in his arms.
“Three—two—one—jump!”
The thread vanished beneath them, and suddenly they were weightless—free-falling into a screaming rush of light and sound.
Wind roared past Bálint’s ears as they spun in midair. His arms tightened around Adaline?—
—and then she was gone.
“Adaline!” he choked out, horror cracking his voice.
He swung his arms outward, reaching instinctively as her form shimmered and slipped through his fingers in a swirl of silver mist.
His stomach plummeted. A roar tore from his throat, primal and anguished.
Shift, his dragon roared, sensing danger.
Purple and gold scales rippled across his skin as his dragon surged forward and took control. His wings snapped open, catching the wind and flaring to slow his descent. His body elongated, his claws spread, and his tail snapped, slicing the air as he fought to stabilize mid-flight.
