Chapter 22 Unusual shifting
Rosee’s POV
Fear was a luxury I had never afforded myself, but the moment Mykel said her name alongside Baemon, something ancient and ugly stirred in my chest.
I released him slowly.
Mykel straightened his coat, smirking as if he hadn’t just been inches from death. “Careful, dragon,” he drawled. “You’ll need me alive if you want her back.”
I stepped away from him, my mind already racing. “Get out of my house.”
“Oh, I will,” he said lightly. “But Rosee?”
I didn’t look at him.
“She won’t stay hidden for long,” Mykel continued. “Blood like hers calls to the dark world.”
The air shifted.
Then he was gone nothing but the faint echo of laughter and the lingering stench of vampiric magic.
I stood there for a long second, fists clenched, breathing through the fury.
I turned sharply. “Precious.”
“Yes, sir?”
“Seal the house. No one leaves and no one enters.”
“And Miss Rain?”
“I’ll find her.”
I returned to the wrecked living room, crouching among the shattered glass. Most would see destruction.
I saw patterns and faint smoke of magic.
The claw marks on the wall weren’t random. They are curved and intentional. Defensive. Rain had been pushed back toward the eastern balcony.
I closed my eyes and pressed my palm to the floor.
The curse flared.
Pain ripped up my arm but I welcomed it.
Magic screamed beneath my skin, answering the trace she’d left behind. Rain’s presence was subtle, like warmth in winter but to me, it rang like a bell.
There. A thread.
I followed it out onto the balcony.
The night air was sharp, the city glowing far below. On the railing were burn marks.
I turned back inside and grabbed my coat.
The underground archives were older than the city itself.
I descended alone, torches igniting as I passed. The walls whispered names of things better left forgotten. I ignored them and went straight to the central table.
Maps. Not made of paper but skin.
I spread one open, blood-ink shifting under my fingers. “Show me places where winged shadows hide,” I commanded.
The map rippled and three locations glowed.
I dismissed two instantly.
The third made my breath still. An abandoned sanctum in the northern cliffs.
Hollow ridges.
“Damn it,” I breathed.
I grabbed a blade, strapped it to my belt, and hesitated only a moment before unlocking the final drawer.
Inside lay a vial of my own blood. Sealed.
I broke it.
The magic surged violently, pain tearing through me but clarity followed.
The drive was a blur.
Every mile closer made my chest tighten. Her presence flickered dimmed then flared suddenly so bright I slammed the brakes.
The sanctum rose from the cliffs like a scar—stone blackened by ancient rituals, the air humming with forbidden power.
I killed the engine and stepped out.
Then I heard her scream, without thinking twice I ran straight into hell.
Deep into the woods, I saw men on weird robes.
The attacker moved like smoke given purpose—cloaked, winged, ancient. Whoever they were, they knew exactly where to strike, how to bind, how to drain without killing.
And that frightened me more than anything else.
I crossed the over in seconds. “Rain,” I said, forcing calm into my voice. “Look at me.”
Her eyes lifted. They were glassy, unfocused, filled with pain so sharp it nearly cut me in half.
“You came,” she whispered.
But when my hands touched the chains round her, they screamed.
A shrill ringing split my skull and I dropped to one knee, palms slamming into the stone. The floor cracked beneath me as my head slammed forward, vision exploding into white.
I tasted blood.
Breathing hard, shaking, I forced myself upright. My head throbbed like it might split open. That was when I understood.
This wasn’t meant to be broken by force.
It was meant to be broken by blood.
A shared one. This is a risk because it might go wrong.
When our blood touched the chains, the magic screamed.
The chamber erupted in blinding silver light. The chains rattled violently, shrieking like living things being torn apart. Power surged outward in a shockwave that hurled debris across the room.
Rain screamed and the chains shattered.
And that was when everything went wrong.
Just in, someone stabbed me from behind.
I gasped, stumbling forward as the blade drove deep. My knees buckled, breath leaving me in a broken sound.
Rain screamed my name.
I turned just enough to see Ryan—eyes wild, shaking, terrified.
“You don't hurt her!” he roared. “She’s my sister!”
The blade burned where it was buried, reacting violently to my blood.
I barely had time to crawl away before power tore through the air.
I looked up and saw Rain.
Rain levitated towards the moon,
Purple light burst from her eyes, ancient and violent, cutting through the darkness like lightning. Her hair turned white—pure, radiant, growing longer as if touched by the moon itself, lifting around her like a living halo.
Her bones cracked.
I heard it, felt it in my own body.
Her scream fractured into something primal as claws tore from her fingers, black and silver, curved and lethal. Fur spread across her skin. Not the usual brown fur but midnight black threaded with glowing silver veins that pulsed with lunar light.
Her wolf was enormous.
Broad shoulders. A crown of faintly glowing markings across her forehead like broken runes. Eyes burning violet-silver.
When she howled, the sound shook the sanctum and the moon answered.
I pressed a hand to my head as another wave of pain crushed me.
This time, it wasn’t the chains, It was her.
The bond—whatever had been awakened reached for me.
My skull rang as foreign memories crashed into my mind.
Two full moons, blood rituals and a dragon kneeling beneath a silver wolf crowned in starlight.
I screamed and slammed my forehead into the stone floor, vision bursting as I lost control.
This wasn’t meant for me.
Rain hovered before the moon, her massive wolf form suspended in the air, silver veins blazing like constellations beneath her fur.
Then she fell to the ground with a hard thud.