“He can try.”
“And me?”
Her eye hardens. “If you are bound into whatever saved him, then yes.”
The words settle cold beneath my ribs.
I buy salt, iron filings, blackthorn resin, and three charms she swears are overpriced because they work. Then Corin and I leave the shop with the market pressing too close around usand the shadows behaving too politely now, as if they know I’m watching.
Rhazek waits at the far end of the lane.
He stands beneath the broken arch leading back toward our district, his posture rigid, his attention already fixed on me. He has not followed openly into the market, but he is near enough for the tether to hum under my skin. I feel him before I reach him, a low warmth tucked beneath my pulse.
I stop walking.
Corin looks at me. “Don’t.”
“I need to know the range in daylight with the expanded wards nearby.”
“No, you want to know because knowing makes you feel less trapped.”
“That too.”
“Sable.”
I hand him the sack of supplies. “Count my steps.”
He looks furious, but he takes it. “This is a stupid idea.”
“It’s a measured stupid idea.”
“That does not improve it.”
I turn and walk away from Rhazek.
At ten paces, the tether pulls tight but holds.
At fifteen, pressure blooms behind my eyes.
At twenty, Rhazek’s form fractures.
The change is visible this time. Red light cracks along his outline, and the air around him splinters like heat over stone. His hand lifts toward the arch, but his knees buckle before he can correct the collapse. Corin drops the sack and moves faster than any human should, reaching Rhazek before he hits the ground.
He catches him under the arm and shoulders the weight with a grunt.
“Enough!” Corin shouts. “Sable, enough!”
The sound of his voice tears something open in me.
I run back.
The moment I cross the distance, the tether surges, not gently this time but with desperate force. Rhazek’s form pulls itself together in visible layers, the cracks sealing as I grab his arm with both hands. His skin under my grip feels too hot, and for a second I feel the instability inside him like a vast structure swaying in a storm.
“I’m here,” I say, and I hate how frightened my voice sounds. “I’m here.”
Rhazek’s eyes open.
They lock on mine with terrible focus.
