Chapter 27 TWENTY SIX
(NYRA'S POV)
A searing pain is what finally wakes me up.
It doesn’t just hurt, it burns me.
The agony tears through my body like lightning ripping through the sky on a stormy night, nerves screaming as if they’re being reformed from the inside out. I try to gasp, but my lungs seize, locking the air in my chest. My back arches violently and a broken sound claws its way out of my throat.
“Nyra!”
Keiran’s voice reaches me first—distant, strained, like he’s shouting from the bottom of a well.
I try to answer, but can’t. The world fractures, and I realize I’m no longer in the infirmary.
I’m falling.
Down, through layers of shadow and moonlight, through memory and magic, through something ancient that recognizes me far too well.
Chains appear around me, forged from pale light and darkness twisted together. They burn where they touch my skin, sinking into my wrists, my spine, my chest.
“Nyra,” Lyric cries inside me, her voice distorted, stretched thin. “Something’s wrong. This isn’t reality, it's a dream. One which we must wake from immediately. ”
Of course it's a dream. I mean I clearly recall pulling Riven out of where the Voidsteel had him trapped. So he can't be here.
But I see him.
Not his body, but his wolf.
He’s submerged in a vast, black void, thrashing weakly as Voidsteel sigils wrap tighter around him, feeding, draining. His eyes are dull, unfocused, he doesn’t see me.
Panic slams into me.
“No,” I sob, fighting the chains. “I’m here, Riven. I’m right here…”
I reach for him, but something grabs me back.
Cold. Vast. Familiar in the worst way.
“You should not be here alone.”
The voice isn’t loud. It doesn’t need to be.
My blood turns to ice.
“Xorus,” I whisper, and the darkness ripples.
“You practically bleed moonlight now,” " he murmurs, amused. " Did you think I wouldn’t feel it?"
I scream as the chains tighten, dragging power out of me in violent surges. Silver light rips from my chest, pouring into the void like a beacon.
“This is not your strength,” Lyric snarls. “You’re taking it from her…”
“From what is mine,” Xorus corrects smoothly.
“You'll kill her!" Lyric yells. I'm too weak to be surprised at how he hears her.
I feel hands grab me; Lucien’s shadows, Keiran’s grip, the healer’s shouting words that blur together.
“Her magic is spiking, no, collapsing, no, splitting…”
My scream finally tears free, raw and unrestrained.
The chains shatter, and I slam back into my body with bone-jarring force, lungs dragging in air as I choke and gasp, pain still ripping through me but now sharpened, focused.
I can hear again.
“Hold her!”
“She’s burning from the inside…”
“Nyra, look at me!” Lucien’s voice cracks through the chaos, closer now, desperate. “Stay with me, do not let go…”
I claw at his arm, grounding myself in him, in the moment, the reality.
My vision clears just enough for me to see it.
Riven’s heart monitor spikes violently, then steadies.
Wait, his heart monitor? I thought I saved him earlier, so why…
“He passed out again," Lucien explained calmly. “It's like they were dragging him back, the Voidsteel refusing to let go complete.
So that wasn't just a dream?
The healer staggers back, horrified. “That shouldn’t be possible…”
Keiran looks at me like he’s seeing me for the first time.
“What did you do?” he asks quietly.
I swallow, throat raw, every nerve still buzzing.
“I didn’t save him,” I whisper. “I thought I was dreaming when I found myself back there.” Fear coils tight in my chest.
“I anchored him.”
Lucien stiffens. “To what?”
I close my eyes.
“To me.”
And deep, deep inside—where the Lunar Crystal’s echo hums like a second heartbeat—I feel it.
That presence again.
Watching.
Waiting.
Smiling.
Soon, Xorus whispers faintly, brushing the edges of my mind.
I open my eyes, silver light bleeding into the whites.
“No,” I say aloud, voice shaking but firm. “Not soon.”
This war just escalated.
And I’m no longer just a target.
I’m a tether.
That's the thought echoing in my head as darkness takes over.
\~~~
I wake slowly this time.
Not to pain—thank the stars—but to warmth.
A steady, grounding warmth that seeps into my bones and drags me back from the heavy dark. My lashes flutter, lids resisting like they’re weighed down by lead. The room comes into focus in fragments; muted candlelight, pale stone walls, the familiar scent of herbs and magic lingering in the air.
Then I feel it. A hand.
Large, and calloused, wrapped firmly around mine, like it’s been there the entire time and refuses to let go.
My breath catches, and I turn my head.
Riven sits beside the bed, shoulders hunched forward, forearms braced on his thighs. His hair is loose, darker than usual in the low light, shadows bruising the skin beneath his eyes. He looks exhausted, drained in a way that makes my chest ache.
But he’s awake, and he’s here, and that's all that matters.
“Riven,” I whisper, my voice barely more than breath.
His head snaps up instantly.
For a heartbeat, he just stares at me like he’s afraid I’ll disappear if he blinks. Then his grip tightens, not painfully, just… desperately.
“Don’t,” he says hoarsely.
I frown faintly. “Don’t… what?”
“Ever do that again.”
I swallow, throat dry. “You’re welcome?”
“I'm serious, Nyra," he says softly. A muscle ticks along his cheek as he rises to his feet, looming closer, not in anger, but something far more dangerous.
Fear.
“You nearly died,” he says, voice low, controlled in the way only an Alpha managing to keep his wolf leashed can be. “You tied your life force to mine without knowing if it would tear you apart. You foolishly challenged the Voidsteel without even knowing the consequences.”
“I knew,” I argue weakly. “Well, most of them .”
His eyes blaze. “Nyra.”
That single word hits harder than a shout.
“You don’t get to decide that your life is worth less than mine,” he growls. “You don’t get to gamble it away like it’s nothing.”
I shift, wincing as my body protests, but I keep my gaze locked on his. “I didn’t do it because you’re worth more,” I say quietly.
“Then why?” he demands.
“Because you matter to me.”
The words hang between us, raw and unarmored.
Riven’s expression fractures.
He drags a hand down his face, breath shuddering out of him. “I woke up and they told me what you did,” he murmurs. “They told me you were unresponsive. That your magic nearly burned you alive.”
His voice breaks…just barely.
“I’ve lost too many people,” he continues, eyes dark and fierce now. “I won’t lose you. Not like that. Not because you thought being brave meant being reckless.”
I huff softly despite myself. “Since when did you become my life coach?”
His lips twitch despite the tension. “Since you scared the hell out of me.”
That… that does something to me.
I squeeze his hand. “I’m still here.”
“For now,” he says grimly. “And that’s the problem. You’re becoming something powerful, Nyra. Something every force in this realm will want to use or destroy.”
“Let them try,” I mutter. “I’m very unpleasant when cornered.”
A ghost of a smile flickers across his face, gone almost as soon as it appears. He leans down then, resting his forehead against the edge of the mattress, close enough that I can feel his breath.
“Promise me,” he says quietly. “Never risk your life like that again. Not alone. Not without telling someone. Not without giving me a chance to stop you.”
I hesitate.
Because I’m me, and I would do it again without a second thought if need be.
But then I look at him—really look—and the words come easier than I expect.
“I promise,” I say. “I’ll at least be smarter about it.”
He snorts softly. “That’s not comforting.”
“It’s the best you’re getting.”
He straightens, eyes softer now, relief bleeding through the cracks of his stern exterior. “Rest,” he orders. “You’re not leaving this bed today.”
I smirk faintly. “You staying to enforce that?”
His fingers brush my knuckles, gentle but possessive. “I’m not going anywhere.”
And for the first time since I woke up, my chest loosens.
Because no matter whatever darkness is circling, whatever prophecy is unfolding.
I didn’t wake up alone.
And somehow… that changes everything.
But as I look down at my hands, my eyes widen in horror. The mark of the Voidsteel is imprinted deep into my skin, glowing like it's alive.
Oh fuck!