Chapter 201 Dante

Chapter 201 Dante

I didn’t know what to do.

For the first time in a long time... I had no control.

Not over the fire. Not over the bond. Not over her.

Seraphine’s body jerked violently on the ground in front of me, every tremor ripping through the bond and slamming straight into my chest like I was the one convulsing.

I could feel it. Every second of it. Every pulse of pain. Every frantic spike of fear.

And it was too much.

“Stop—” I dragged a hand through my hair, pacing once, then twice, my fire flickering wildly under my skin. “Just tell me what the hell I’m supposed to do!”

The voidbinder didn’t move. Didn’t soften. Just stared at me like I was the slow one.

“Choose.”

That wasn’t an answer.

“That’s not—”

“Choose,” he repeated.

Behind me, footsteps crashed through the trees. Lucian. Amara.

Amara didn’t even hesitate.

She dropped to her knees beside Seraphine immediately, grabbing her shoulders gently but firmly, trying to keep her from hurting herself.

“Hey—hey—look at me—Seraphine—come on—”

Seraphine didn’t respond. Her body arched again, another violent convulsion tearing through her as a broken sound left her throat.

Amara’s voice cracked. “Dante, what did you do to her?!”

That hit harder than anything else. “I didn’t—”

“You did!” she snapped, tears already spilling down her face. “She was fine and now she’s—she’s—”

“I didn’t do this!” I roared.

“You’re part of it!” she yelled back.

Lucian stepped between us before it could get worse. “Enough.”

I turned on him immediately. “Explain it to me,” I demanded. “Now. What the hell is happening?!”

Lucian didn’t answer right away. He watched Seraphine. Watched the way her body convulsed. Watched the bond flicker unevenly between us.

Then his jaw tightened. “…you’re not fully in.”

I blinked. “What?”

“You heard him,” Lucian said, nodding toward the voidbinder. “You’re not fully invested in the bond.”

“That’s bullshit.”

“Is it?”

“Yes.”

He held my gaze. Unflinching. “Then why is she breaking while you’re still standing?”

That... That hit. Hard

I felt it through the bond too.

She was drowning in it. And I was… Not.

“I am in this,” I snapped. “I chose her. I—”

Lucian cut me off. “No. You chose part of her.”

My fire flared. “That’s not true.”

“Isn’t it?” he pushed. “You chose the version of her you understood. The one that fit what you expected.”

My jaw clenched.

“And now?” he continued. “Now she’s something else. Something bigger. Something stronger.”

Something that didn’t fit. I didn’t say it. Didn’t have to.

Lucian saw it anyway.

And then... He dropped it.

The truth.

The thing that made everything else snap into place.

“You’ll never fully settle into this bond with her,” he said quietly.

The world went still. “What?”

His voice didn’t waver. “Not like this.”

“That doesn’t make any sense—”

“It does,” he cut in. “You’re fire.”

I scoffed. “Yeah, no shit.”

“And fire doesn’t yield.”

That stopped me.

Lucian stepped closer.“Fire dominates,” he continued. “It leads. It consumes. It doesn’t bend to something stronger.”

My stomach twisted. “No—”

“And your mate?” he gestured toward Seraphine. “She’s not just stronger.”

Another convulsion ripped through her.

Amara sobbed, trying to hold her steady. “She’s everything.”

Fire. Death. Cosmic. Something else entirely.

“You’re trying to bond with someone your dragon refuses to submit to,” Lucian finished.

The words hit like a hammer. “No,” I said again, quieter this time. “That’s not—”

“It is.”

I shook my head, pacing back once, my chest tight, my thoughts spiraling. “That’s not how this works,” I muttered. “That’s not—mates don’t—”

“They do,” Lucian said. “Or they break.”

I looked at Seraphine. Her body shook again. Harder. Worse.

“Fix it!” Amara screamed at me, tears streaming down her face. “Do something, Dante!”

“I’m trying!” I snapped.

“Try harder!”

“I don’t—” I dragged both hands through my hair, my fire flaring violently now, unstable. “I don’t know how!”

Lucian’s voice dropped. There it was. The choice.

“You have two options.”

I didn’t want to hear them. Didn’t want to say them. Didn’t want this to be real.

But I forced myself to look at him anyway. “Say it.”

He didn’t hesitate. “You break the bond.”

My heart stopped. “Or—” I couldn’t breathe.

“You convince your dragon to accept her.”

Silence. Heavy. Crushing.

My dragon snarled inside me instantly.

No.

I swallowed hard.

“You don’t understand—”

“I do,” Lucian said quietly. “Better than you think.”

“No, you don’t,” I snapped. “You don’t feel this—”

“I don’t need to,” he shot back. “I’ve seen it.”

That made me pause.

“…what?”

“With fire Dragonborn,” he said. “Plenty of times.”

My chest tightened.

“They either break the bond—”

My stomach dropped.

“Or they force the dragon to submit.”

That sounded impossible. It felt impossible.

“You’re asking me to go against my own nature,” I said.

“Yes.”

“That’s not how fire works.”

“No,” Lucian agreed. “It’s not.”

Another convulsion.

Seraphine gasped, choking on air that wouldn’t come right.

“Dante—” Amara cried.

I turned back to her.

I thought love was supposed to feel like fire.

All-consuming. Certain. Absolute.

That was what I had told myself this whole time.

That what I felt for her was real. That it was deep. That it was enough.

But standing there, watching her body break in front of me, feeling her pain claw through the bond while mine only echoed half as strong—

Something inside me finally cracked.

Not in the way hers was.

Not violently.

Quietly.

Truthfully.

“She’s giving you everything.”

Lucian’s words wouldn’t stop replaying.

And I knew they were right.

She had never held back.

Not once.

Not in the way she fought.

Not in the way she felt.

Not in the way she chose me.

She gave all of it.

Every piece of herself.

And I—

I didn’t.

I couldn’t.

Because the truth sat in my chest like a blade I had been avoiding this entire time.

I didn’t love her.

Not the way she deserved.

Not the way she loved me.

I loved the idea of her.

The version of her I thought she would become.

The version that pushed back just enough to be interesting, but still yielded.

Still listened.

Still fit into the world I understood.

I loved that she argued with me, but still followed.

That she talked back, but still came when I called.

That I could shape her.

Guide her.

Mold her into something that stood beside me, but not above me.

Not equal in power.

Not something that challenged the very foundation of what I was.

And now—

Now she wasn’t that.

She was something else.

Something bigger.

Something stronger.

Something I couldn’t control.

Something I couldn’t even fully understand.

And my dragon—

My dragon hated it.

“She’s wrong for us.”

The words didn’t come from fear.

They came from instinct.

Ancient.

Unyielding.

“She will never bow.”

I swallowed hard.

Because it wasn’t just my dragon saying it anymore.

It was me.

“She won’t be what we need.”