Chapter 210
DEREK
There are threads that weave through a life unseen-
Quiet, stubborn things that tie us to the world, to the people who change it forever.
Most fray slowly, the work of years and distance, worn down by the everyday erosion of time. But some…
Some are burned.
Some are ripped away all at once, as if the gods themselves cannot bear to see them remain.
I had thought ours was the kind that could endure anything
I had been wrong.
The bond was splintering.
I could feel it tearing–one thread at a time, unraveling inside my chest with a slow, sickening pull. Like someone was carving away pieces of me, scattering them into the cold night air.
Beside me, Elena wavered. I caught the faint, broken sound of her breath, the way her body rocked as if invisible hands were yanking her apart.
No.
No, not like this.
Erebus roared under my skin, thrashing against the wrongness sinking its claws into us. My own wolf refused to surrender. Refused to let what tethered us be torn away without a fight.
I reached out blindly, my hand finding hers.
Her fingers were ice cold, trembling violently. For one terrible heartbeat, I thought she might slip through my grip entirely.
But then-
Contact.
Her hand clutched mine like a drowning man seizing a lifeline.
The effect was immediate.
The ripping sensation faltered, the magic snarling and looping back on itself as if it couldn’t decide whether to let go or dig deeper.
I squeezed her hand harder, grounding myself to her.
We weren’t two separate beings anymore. We hadn’t been for a long time. We were threads braided together, woven into something greater than ourselves.
And whoever was trying to sever that—
They were going to fail.
Elena’s eyes found mine through the swirling distortion. Wide. Wild. Terrified. But something new flickered there too–something fierce. She felt it too. She understood.
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Chapter 210
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The bond frayed and buckled around us, but where our hands met, a fresh current of energy surged. It didn’t stop the attack completely, but it tethered the fraying threads, looping them back toward each other in desperate knots.
*Hold on.
Hold on.
Hold on.
Above us, the moon blazed down, stark and brilliant, as if the Goddess herself had finally opened her eyes.
A memory surfaced–unbidden, unwanted–the Priestess’s voice from the Moonbinding ceremony.
“The Moon does not weave blindly. She ties the thread to the soul.”
Ties the thread.
Not to a body.
Not to a name.
To the soul.
That thread was fraying now–but not because it was weak. Because something unnatural was clawing at it from the outside.
I knew what I had to do.
I moved without thought, without fear, crossing the shallow gap between us and hauling her into my arms.
She gasped, but didn’t pull away.
She couldn’t.
Neither could I.
The bond burned between us, thrashing wildly, desperate to anchor itself before it was lost forever.
I buried my hand in her hair, tipped her face up to mine.
And I kissed her.
Not softly. Not carefully.
Like a drowning man breaking the surface.
Like a soul remembering what it had once been tethered to.
Her body locked against mine, the shock of it rippling through both of us like a lightning strike.
I poured everything into the kiss. Every apology I owed her. Every promise I hadn’t kept. Every scrap of the life the Goddess meant us to share.
And I felt the bond fight back-
Not unraveling.
Not dying.
Knotting itself tighter.
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Chapter 210
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Sealing itself with a force that no dark magic could sever. For the first time all night, the tearing sensation dulled.
For the first time, I believed we might survive this.
Because we weren’t two threads anymore.
We were one.
ELENA
Something was wrong.
So wrong it felt like I might split in two.
The magic clawing at me wasn’t normal. It wasn’t even natural. It felt ancient and cruel and desperate, prying at places inside me I hadn’t even known were vulnerable.
Every breath hurt.
Every heartbeat threatened to shake me apart.
I clutched at Derek’s hand blindly, barely aware of where we were, who might be watching, how strange it must look. None of that mattered anymore.
His hand was the only real thing left.
The only anchor against the ripping tide.
Nox’s voice, low and raw, whispered in the back of my mind:
“…it ties the thread to the soul…”
Ties the thread.
Not breaks it.
Not severs it.
Ties it.
The magic twisting through the clearing didn’t understand that.
It could tug. It could tear.
But it couldn’t destroy what was written into the soul.
I could feel Derek moving–urgent, desperate–and then his arms were around me, crushing me against him.
The impact knocked the last breath from my lungs.
And then he kissed me.
I gasped against his mouth, and it was like falling back into my own body after years of exile.
Like breathing for the first time.
Like quenching a thirst I hadn’t even known was killing me.
The bond surged between us, furious and wild and alive.
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Chapter 210
It wasn’t just magic.
It was history. Memory. Choice.
It was him.
It was me.
It was everything we had lost–and everything, we still had left to fight for.
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Tears burned behind my eyes, but I didn’t pull away. I clutched at him, kissed him back with everything I had left, threading my soul to his with every broken, desperate heartbeat.
I could feel the bond stitching itself together between us, not with neatness or grace, but with raw, indestructible truth.
We were tethered.
We had always been tethered.
We had just forgotten how strong the thread really was.
The magic thrashing around us tried one last time to wrench us apart-
but it was too late.
We had chosen each other.
When we finally tore apart, gasping, there was a moment of absolute stillness.
And then-
A crack of thunder split the sky open.
Louder than anything I’d ever heard.
It wasn’t rain. There were no storm clouds. The sky was clear and furious and alive, the moon glaring down like a witness.
I staggered back a step, still clutching Derek’s jacket around my shoulders, still clinging to his hand.
Slowly, almost fearfully, I looked up into his face.
And when I did-
I felt it.
The bond.
Not the frayed, tentative connection we had half–ignored for years.
Not the battered, wounded thing we had limped through life with the last seven years.
The full force of it.
Restored. Whole. Roaring through my blood like a second heartbeat.
It pulsed between us, golden and savage and undeniable.
My chest ached with it.
Chapter 210
Derek’s hand trembled in mine, and his eyes–Goddess, h
There was no more pretending.
No more running.
Whatever had been torn from us all those years ago-
Whatever I had rejected, whatever he had broken-
It was back.
It had never truly left.
It had just been waiting for the moment we were strong er
And Goddess help anyone who tried to tear it from us now
Chapter 210
Derek’s hand trembled in mine, and his eyes–Goddess, his eyes–were raw with it too.
There was no more pretending.
No more running.
Whatever had been torn from us all those years ago-
Whatever I had rejected, whatever he had broken-
It was back.
It had never truly left.
It had just been waiting for the moment we were strong enough to hold it again.
And Goddess help anyone who tried to tear it from us now.
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Chapter 211
