Chapter 9: The Bond That Burns
Liora came to in a darkness that wasn't just the absence of light—no, this was heavy stuff, thick and thrumming, coiled up inside her chest like a second, meaner heart. She sat up way too fast (dumb move, honestly), and her body protested. Everything ached. Her skin fizzed with leftover magic, and her mouth tasted like she'd chewed on burnt wires. Good morning to me.
"Easy," someone said. That voice. Kael. He was right there, not fussing, just sort of...steady. Like always.
She rubbed her eyes, winced. "How long was I out?" Her voice sounded like gravel.
"Three days."
She blinked, trying to do the math. "The Summit—?"
"Done. We won."
He wasn't celebrating, though. Not even a hint of a grin.
She squinted at him. "But?"
"You broke the curse, Liora."
"Yeah, which is...good? Right?"
"It is."
"Then why do you look like you just watched your puppy get run over?"
His jaw tensed. "Because I don't know if you're still you."
Ouch. She recoiled. "What's that supposed to mean?"
He started pacing. Never a good sign. "You called down some old, wild thing, Liora. The Seer's at a loss. Your body made it, sure. But your soul—"
She cut him off with a glare. "Still mine."
"Is it?" His voice barely made it out.
Liora dragged herself to her feet, swaying a little but not backing down. "Would I still love you if I wasn't?"
That made him freeze. Like, full stop. She stepped right up to him, close enough to see the little flecks of gold in his eyes.
"I remember everything," she said. "You. My brother. The Elders. The purge. The scared kid I was. The woman I am now."
He just stared at her, searching for something.
"I'm not asking you to trust the crazy things I can do," she told him, voice shaking, "Just trust me."
"I do."
Their hands found each other. The bond—yeah, that wild, dangerous thing tethering them together—wasn't a storm anymore. More like a heartbeat. Quiet. Strong.
He pulled her in, holding her tight, like she was both a fire and the only thing keeping him from burning up.
"I missed you," he breathed into her hair.
"I wasn't gone," she murmured. "Just...changing."
Somewhere not-so-very-far, a Council fortress went up like kindling.
Elder Thorne watched orange flames claw at the sky, face set in blank stone. The news from his spies was old by now, but it still burned—Maelis: dead. Shadowborn: awake. Kael's curse? Busted.
"So it begins," he muttered, all melodramatic.
His second-in-command shuffled over, looking like he'd rather be anywhere else. "Should we strike now, before they regroup?"
Thorne barely looked at him. "No. Not yet."
"But—"
He spun around, eyes like knives. "She thinks this was her transformation. It wasn't."
"She thinks she's—what, done?"
He snorted. "She's only half."
The second swallowed hard. "And the other half?"
Thorne grinned, cold and sharp. "On the way."
He stared east, all ominous. "To claim her. Or break her."
Back at Blackridge, Liora perched by a window, watching the courtyard try to remember what normal looked like. Hollowmere was a victory, sure...but also, kind of a mess. Packs were fractured. Some bowed to Kael now, some just glared from a distance.
Sleep? Who needs that. The power inside her wouldn't shut up, whispering in corners of her mind, buzzing under her skin like too much caffeine.
Footsteps behind her.
Dante, ever the ray of sunshine. "You look like you lost a boxing match with a thunderstorm," he said, shoving a cup of tea into her hands.
She managed a crooked smile. "I feel like I was the thunderstorm."
He flopped down next to her. "Kael's worried."
"I know."
"Not just about you. About what happens now."
She nodded. "Thorne's not gonna wait around. He'll come. With the whole Council, probably."
Dante's eyes narrowed. "And?"
"And...I have to finish this. All of it."
He watched her, skeptical. "You're thinking of leaving."
"I have to," Liora said, soft but stubborn. "I need to find the other half of me."
Dante just blinked. "You don't even know what that is."
She stared through him. "Yeah, I do."
She wandered down the hall, stopping at the ancient mirror only she could really see through. Shadowborn perks, apparently.
The surface shimmered.
Mist. Moonlight. The Otherwild.
---
Kael didn't try to stop her.
When she told him, he just nodded, jaw tight.
"I want to come with you," he said, voice rough. "But I know this is your thing. You gotta do it alone."
She gave him a sad smile. "I'll be back."
He kissed her like it might be the last time. She tried not to cry.
"Come back to me," he whispered.
She turned, heart pounding, and stepped into the mirror.
---
Everything twisted.
She fell—again—through nothing, memory, colors that didn't make sense. Time got weird.
And then—
She was standing in a field of silver grass under a sky gone blood-red.
Welcome to the Otherwild.
Land of the lost. Land of the broken.
Something moved out there.
A figure. Tall. Hood up. Sword made of bone and starlight (because why not?).
She braced herself.
The figure pulled down his hood.
Her heart just...stopped.
He looked like her. Not identical, but enough. Same eyes, silver as the moon. Same markings. Power rolling off him in waves.
"You're the other half," she breathed.
He grinned—a little too sharp, a little too dangerous.
"No," he said. "I'm the original."