68

68

Thalia’s POV

The moment the council doors shut behind me, I felt every eye burning into my back. The whispers did not wait until I was gone; they followed me, curling around the dim stone hallway like smoke, sharp and acrid. My name, Jaden’s name, the curse, the bond — they were no longer secrets. They had become the wolves’ gossip, and gossip was often sharper than fangs.
Nancy hurried to my side, her fingers brushing mine like she was afraid even my skin might burn her. “Keep your head down,” she whispered fiercely. “Don’t meet their eyes.”
I wanted to obey, but Nyra’s voice cut through from behind me, steady, cold. “No. Lift your head. Let them see you aren’t broken.”
I hesitated between them. Nancy, trembling with fear for me, wanted to shield me with silence. Nyra, unwavering, wanted me to confront it. My chest tightened as the choice pressed in on me — even in something as small as walking a hallway, I was divided between two opposing wills.
So I did both. I lifted my chin, but my eyes stayed low. Not defiant, not meek — something in between. The whispers grew louder as we passed a cluster of wolves near the stairwell.
“Her mark spreads.”
“It’s not natural.”
“She cried his name, they all heard it.”
“She’ll fall before the next moon.”
The words pierced deeper than claws, yet I kept moving, my feet leaden but steady. Nyra’s shadow at my back made me feel watched but guarded. Nancy’s trembling presence by my side reminded me I was not walking alone.
By the time we reached my chamber, my lungs felt raw from holding breath I hadn’t realized I was keeping. Nancy shut the door quickly, leaning her body against it as if she could bar the whole pack from bursting in.
“You can’t go out there again,” she said, her voice breaking. “They’ll eat you alive with their stares, with their words. Thalia, they smell weakness like blood.”
I sank onto the bed, pressing my palms into the mattress until the straw poked through. “And if I stay hidden? Won’t that be worse? Won’t that make me prey?”
Nyra circled closer, her presence cool, commanding. “Exactly. You cannot vanish, not now. You screamed his name, Thalia. They know what it means. If you shrink away, they will treat you as cursed, as already lost. If you face them, even in silence, you remind them you are still here, still strong.”
Nancy shot her a glare. “Strong? She’s exhausted, she’s pale, she can barely breathe without shaking! What good is strength if it kills her?”
Their voices clashed like stormwinds above me, one urging retreat, the other urging war. And I sat between them, feeling both truths weigh on my chest until it became hard to breathe.
“I don’t know what I am anymore,” I whispered.
Silence fell. Nyra stopped pacing. Nancy’s hand slowly reached for mine.
The mark on my shoulder throbbed faintly, like an ember buried beneath skin. Even when I tried to forget it, it pulsed, reminding me that my body was no longer entirely mine. That bond — Jaden’s vow, my resistance — it had woven itself into me, a thread I could not pull free without tearing myself apart.
That night, Nancy refused to leave my side, fussing with blankets, checking the window latch, whispering reassurances she barely believed herself. Nyra sat in the corner like a sentinel, eyes half-lidded but sharp, watching every twitch of my face.
I lay there between them, trapped by care and by scrutiny, unable to find rest. The mark pulsed hotter with each passing hour. My body begged for sleep, but my mind feared what waited when I closed my eyes.
And still, the bond pulled.
When my eyes finally drifted shut, it was not gentle. It was like being dragged beneath a dark river, my lungs filling with heat instead of water.
The world around me was not my chamber. It was fire again — the same burning houses, the same roar of wolves, smoke clawing into my throat. I staggered through it, my hands reaching for something solid, anything real.
Then I heard it — not growls this time, but a heartbeat. Heavy, pounding, steady as a drum. It was not mine.
“Thalia.”
His voice came from everywhere, echoing through the flames. I spun, searching, my chest tight with fear and something far more dangerous — relief.
The fire parted like curtains, and there he stood. Jaden. Not in flesh, but in shadow and flame, his eyes the only living thing in the inferno.
“You called me,” he said.
“I didn’t—” My voice cracked. “I didn’t mean to.”
“You did,” he insisted, stepping closer. The flames curled but did not touch him. “You called, and I came.”
I shook my head, backing away, but the ground crumbled into embers beneath me. The only solid thing was him. The tether between us tugged, pulling me forward no matter how I fought it.
“I can’t belong to you,” I whispered, my throat raw from smoke.
“You already do.” His hand lifted, palm open, fire swirling between his fingers. “And I to you. That is the curse, Thalia. That is the bond.”
Tears stung my eyes, smoke burning them red. “You’ll destroy me.”
“Or save you.” His voice softened, and the fire dimmed slightly. “But you must stop running. Every time you resist, it burns deeper. Every time you deny me, the curse takes more from you.”
The mark on my shoulder seared as if to prove his words. I cried out, clutching it, feeling the heat spread down my arm like liquid fire.
“Choose me,” he said, his voice both command and plea. “Or be consumed.”
The flames surged higher, swallowing the houses, the sky, even the ground. All that remained was him, his eyes, and the unbearable pull
of the tether.
And I — I was falling.