Chapter 106 Chapter 106

Chapter 106 Chapter 106


The living seal tore another fraction and the world narrowed to white pain. Eliasa felt the sovereign thread dig deeper into the soft core of her body seeking the open scar like a living root. The generous weight of her form shuddered under the invasion. Short black curls stuck to the sweat on her freckled forehead. Blue eyes stayed locked on the silver haired woman who continued her unhurried approach through the chaos of the gate battle.

Roman held her upright the massive strength of his arms the only thing keeping the plush curves of her body from collapsing completely. Pale green eyes burned with shared agony as the bond transmitted every spike of the tearing seal. His voice reached her in a low continuous growl meant to anchor her the same way her softness anchored the power.

I am here. Pull harder. Close it. I will not let it take either of us.

Eliasa forced air into her lungs the full swell of her chest rising against his. She gathered silver wolf strength into the soft layers of her stomach and thighs turning the very flesh the world had once mocked into an unyielding foundation. Crimson vampire hunger rose next biting down on the invading thread and drinking what power it could without opening the scar further. Obsidian witch threads wove around the wound inside her stitching frantically even as new tears appeared.

The silver haired woman stopped ten paces from the gate. Crimson eyes studied the struggling pair with cold amusement. Behind her the thralls pressed the academy lines with renewed frenzy. Jointed limbs clicked against stone. Mouths that should not open so wide tore at warriors who refused to give ground. Silvia fought at the center of the press blade flashing in tight lethal arcs. Each cut landed true yet the refined seeds inside the thralls closed the wounds almost as fast as they opened. Darius stood farther back golden runes spinning from both hands as he tried to rebuild containment circles that the thralls simply walked through. Lucien moved like living shadow draining what little essence he could reach yet even his ancient hunger found the seeds strangely empty of the life he needed.

The woman lifted her other hand. A second thread of pure sovereign will formed above her palm and shot toward Roman’s exposed back.

Eliasa saw it through the bond before her eyes could track the motion. She twisted inside Roman’s hold the soft fullness of her body taking the second impact the same way she had taken the first. Violet white light exploded outward as the living seal screamed in protest. The new thread joined the first already rooted inside her. Pain beyond language ripped through every freckled inch of skin. Her knees buckled. Only Roman’s arms kept the generous weight of her from hitting the stone.

The silver haired woman’s smile widened.

Two threads now little key. How much more can that soft body hold before it splits and spills the primary seal across every waiting vessel?

Roman’s roar shook the gate stones. He shifted further muscle and claw and pure territorial fury rolling over him in a wave that made the nearest thralls hesitate. He set Eliasa carefully against the inner gate wall then turned to face the woman fully. Scarred chest heaving pale green eyes locked on the crimson ones that had threatened his mate.

You will not touch her again.

He charged. The silver haired woman met him with a lance of sovereign energy that should have driven him to his knees. Roman took the hit across the old curse scars and kept coming. Claws raked for her throat. She flowed aside like mist only to reappear at his flank. Another lance formed. He smashed it aside with raw force and closed the distance.

Eliasa used the brief respite. She pressed both soft hands against the plush curve of her stomach and poured everything left into the living seal. The two invading threads fought her every stitch. They whispered through the pain offering the same poisoned perfection they had offered before. Release the balance. Become the open door. Watch the network rise through the body of the man you love. The soft form will no longer matter once power rewrites it.

She rejected the whispers with the full weight of every memory that had brought her here. The public rejection. The fractured bond. The first explosion of tribrid power under a darkening sky. The choice to absorb the greater seal instead of unleashing destruction. The night Roman had knelt before the entire academy and spoken the truth. Love over revenge. Balance over dominance. Softness as strength.

The living seal answered. Silver light flooded the soft layers of her thighs and hips locking her to the stone. Crimson hunger bit deeper into the threads drinking their power and turning it against them. Obsidian threads stitched faster sealing one tear only for another to open under the pressure. Blood ran from her nose and the corners of her blue eyes yet she did not stop.

At the gate the battle tilted. Silvia finally found a rhythm that slowed the thralls. She aimed for joints rather than flesh forcing the refined seeds to spend energy on reconstruction instead of advance. Darius adapted his runes weaving them into the stone itself so the thralls had to fight the road under their feet. Lucien abandoned pure draining and began shattering the jointed limbs with raw physical force buying seconds for the academy lines to reform.

Roman and the silver haired woman traded blows that cracked the air. Every strike he landed forced her back a step. Every lance she formed found his scars and burned. The old curse pathways lit under his skin yet the living seal inside Eliasa still held the greater power that had once been destined to claim him. He would not become the vessel. Not while she still breathed.

Eliasa felt the moment the two threads inside her synchronized. They stopped fighting each other and pushed as one toward the deepest part of the scar. The living seal tore another fraction. A third of the primary power leaked through before she could stop it. The leak shot outward seeking any open vessel. One thrall nearest the gate convulsed as the power touched it. Its jointed form swelled and its eyes flared brighter crimson. It turned on its own kind with sudden terrible purpose.

The silver haired woman felt the leak and laughed in pure delight.

Yes. Feed the network. Every drop you lose becomes another soldier for the age that is coming.

Eliasa screamed through clenched teeth and yanked the leak back with everything she had. The soft body that grounded her power shuddered under the strain. The generous curve of her stomach tightened until the muscles beneath the plush flesh burned. Freckles across her chest and shoulders glowed with the effort of containment. Short black curls lifted in a wind that belonged only to the magic tearing through her.

Roman sensed the crisis through the bond and disengaged from the woman long enough to roar a new command.

All units fall back to the secondary line. Collapse the outer road. Now.

Darius triggered the prepared charges. Golden runes buried in the cliff road detonated in a controlled sequence. Stone and mist and thrall bodies vanished into the chasm below. The silver haired woman leapt clear at the last instant landing on the remaining ledge with liquid grace. Half her thralls were gone. The rest found themselves cut off from easy reinforcement.

She looked at Eliasa across the new gap crimson eyes bright with something that might have been respect.

You are stronger than the last key we tried to claim. That will make your fall more useful. The network is patient. The door is already open. We will be back when the scar finishes tearing itself apart.

She stepped backward into the mist and was gone. The remaining thralls lost cohesion the moment her will withdrew. Academy warriors cut them down with grim efficiency. The gate road fell silent except for the ragged breathing of the survivors and the distant crash of stone still falling into the chasm.

Eliasa’s legs finally gave out. Roman reached her before the soft weight of her body could hit the ground. He gathered the plush curves against his chest ignoring the burns that still smoked across his own scars. The bond carried mutual exhaustion and a fierce protective fury that left no room for the sovereign whispers still trying to surface.

Darius limped toward them golden energy flickering around the worst of his new injuries. Silvia followed blade dark with thrall residue. Lucien appeared from the mist at the edge of the broken road ancient features grave as he confirmed the silver haired woman had truly withdrawn.

Eliasa rested her freckled cheek against Roman’s scarred chest and forced words through the pain still radiating from the living seal.

The scar is worse. Two threads are still inside. I locked them but they are not gone. And she will return with more.

Roman’s arms tightened around the generous give of her waist.

Then we do not wait for her return. We hunt every vessel she can call. Starting with the two that are still distant. You will rest long enough for the healers to stabilize what they can. Then we move.

Eliasa nodded against him the soft laugh that once hid pain now carrying only iron resolve.

Together. Always together.

Around them the academy reeled yet again. Warriors who had held the gate began the grim work of clearing the dead and reinforcing what remained of the road. Dawn light strengthened across the cliffs revealing the full cost of the night’s second battle. The living seal pulsed inside Eliasa’s soft core the two trapped threads shifting restlessly against the stitches she had forced into place. Somewhere beyond the mist the silver haired woman was already calling the remaining vessels closer. The door stayed open. The true network had only begun to wake. And the soft body that held the primary seal was running out of unbroken places to stand.