Chapter 82

Isla POV

“I know.”He sighed and handed me a folded map. “At least pretend to be careful.”

“I’ll do my best.”

The woods were still damp when I entered them. Every sound the drip of water from branches, the faint rustle of wings felt amplified against the quiet.

It didn’t take long for me to reach the ridge. The place where Kieran had last stood.

I could still feel it the residue of his magic. It didn’t hum like the ancient stones; it thrummed. Deep. Living. As if part of him had stayed behind.

I crouched and brushed my fingers over the damp earth. The bond flickered in response a pulse that wasn’t mine.

You shouldn’t be here.

I froze. The voice wasn’t a whisper in my head. It was everywhere. Like the forest itself had spoken.

“Kieran?”

The silence that followed was thick enough to hurt.

I rose slowly, scanning the shadows. “If you’re close, you should show yourself.”

Nothing. Just the wind shifting through the trees and yet, the air carried his scent. Clean. Wild. Familiar.

Then the warmth came a soft ripple through the bond that made my breath catch.

He was near. “Kieran,” I whispered again. “You can’t keep watching me from the dark.”

A low growl answered from the trees. Not threatening. Not warning. Just present.

I stepped forward. “Please.”And then he emerged.

Half hidden by the mist, tall and silent, his eyes glowing faint gold beneath the shadow of his hood. His hair was wet from the rain, strands clinging to his cheek. For a moment, he didn’t move like he was afraid I’d vanish if he did.

Neither of us spoke. The bond pulsed once, steady and sure.

“You shouldn’t have come this close,” he said finally, voice rough and low.

I took a breath. “You’ve been standing here for three nights.”

He didn’t deny it.“What are you guarding against?” I asked.

His gaze shifted past me, to the ridges beyond. “The stones woke something. It’s not bound to one form. It’s... remembering.”

“Remembering what?”“Us,” he said simply. “The wolves. The ones who made the first pacts. The magic that came before the boundaries.”

His eyes met mine then haunted, burning. “It’s drawn to you, Isla. That’s why the stone reacted.”

My heart pounded. “Because of the bond?”“Because of who you are.”The forest held its breath.

“What does that mean?” I whispered.But he just shook his head. “Not yet.”A branch snapped behind me.

Tristan.

He stepped into the clearing with two guards at his back, his expression a mix of fury and disbelief. “I told you to stay within the walls.”

“I wasn’t alone,” I said quietly.

“Clearly.” His gaze shifted to Kieran, and the tension thickened until even the air felt sharp.

Kieran didn’t flinch. “You shouldn’t be here, Alpha.”

Tristan’s jaw tightened. “You don’t give orders on this land anymore.”

“I’m not giving an order,” Kieran said evenly. “I’m giving a warning.”

The growl in Tristan’s throat was low, dangerous. “You left her to die once. You don’t get to protect her now.”

Kieran took a slow step forward. “And you think you can?”

Before I could speak, the air between them shimmered faint, gold, like a pulse between two storms about to collide.

“Stop it,” I said sharply. “Both of you.”

The glow flared once then vanished.

Tristan exhaled slowly, his control snapping back into place. “This isn’t over.”

Kieran’s eyes softened as they met mine. “It never is.”

And then he turned and disappeared into the mist before Tristan could stop him.

Back in the packhouse, the tension lingered like smoke.

Tristan paced the length of the war room while Lyra cleaned the blood from a scout’s arm. “He’s still too close,” Tristan said. “Too connected. The magic flares every time he’s near you.”

I sat quietly by the hearth. “Maybe that’s not a bad thing.”

His head snapped up. “What?”

“If the bond reacts, maybe it’s not warning us. Maybe it’s stabilizing the magic. Keeping it from spreading.”

Lyra paused, glancing between us. “You think he’s holding it back?”

“I think he’s trying to,” I said. “He warned us about the remembering. Whatever that means.”

Tristan’s mouth pressed into a hard line. “It means he knows more than he’s telling you.”

“Or it means he’s trying not to scare us.”

“Isla”

“Tristan.” I met his gaze, steady and calm. “He’s not our enemy.”

For a long moment, he said nothing. Then he turned away, running a hand through his hair. “If you’re wrong, it won’t just be you who pays for it.”

I nodded. “I know.”

That night, I couldn’t sleep again.

The bond pulsed faintly, steady as a heartbeat. I sat by the window, the moonlight silvering the floorboards, and closed my eyes.

Through the quiet, I felt it his presence, faint but warm. Not words this time. Just a feeling.

Safe.

For the first time, the word didn’t sound like a plea. It sounded like a promise.

And somehow, I believed it.

Because even if the world was beginning to remember its old gods, its old wars, its old pacts the bond between us was something older still.

It had survived ruin, betrayal, and blood.

It would survive this too.

Outside, a single howl echoed through the forest not a call, not a threat.

Just a sound that said, I’m still here.

And in the quiet that followed, I whispered back,

“So am I.”

Far beyond the ridge, Kieran lowered his head as the sound of her voice brushed through his mind.

Ronan stepped out of the shadows beside him. “You saw him?”

Kieran nodded. “He’s not her enemy.”

“And you?”

Kieran’s lips curved faintly, bitterly. “I’m what stands between her and everything that remembers her name.”

Ronan’s gaze flicked toward the dark horizon. “Then let’s hope the world forgets a little longer.”

But Kieran already knew.

It wouldn’t.

The forest was waking.

And soon, remembering wouldn’t be a choice it would be a reckoning.

Still, for now, there was peace.

Fleeting, fragile peace.

And under that gray, uncertain sky, two heartbeats kept the same rhythm one bound by duty, the other by love.

Both refusing to break.