Page 22 of Third

She turned just as he stepped through, his chest heaving, eyes wild with fury—and relief.

He reachedher.

Her eyes locked with his, wide and wet and stunned, and for a second, she didn’t breathe. Then she launched into his arms with a force that knocked the breath from his lungs. Her legs wrapped around his waist. Her arms locked around his neck. Her fingers dug into his shoulders like she never planned to letgo.

And he held her likethat.

One arm crushed her to his chest, the other supporting her thighs, holding her to him. Her breath came in trembling gasps against his neck, and his came slower, deeper, as if pulling her back into his arms allowed him to breathe for the firsttime.

Neither of them spoke. They didn’t needto.

The bond thrummed between them like an aftershock, not steady, not calm—but alive. Alow, rhythmic pulse that wrapped around them both—his rage, her relief, their desire—tangled into one breathless current. It wasn’t soothing. It was raw, unfinished, still sparking from everything they’d survived. Her heartbeat faltered against his, and his grip tightened as if he felt it too. The bond didn’t simply reconnect. It reignited.

And in the rush of that heat, she felt it—an overwhelming certainty, crashing through her like the aftershock of his kiss. He had come for her. Not because the bond demanded it. Not because it was written in his blood. But because hechoseher.

He pulled her back just enough to look at her face. Her cheeks were flushed, her lips parted, her eyes wide with something that looked like relief and disbelief all at once. And then he kissed her—hard, fierce, claiming. It wasn’t gentle. It wasn’t sweet. It was the crash of restraint breaking, the echo of everything they’d survived, the firebrand seal of something already written in both their blood.

It was avow.

She didn’t hesitate.

Their arms locked around each other in silence. The corridor, the blood, the destruction—all of it fell away. His breath was still ragged, her pulse still fluttering wildly under his fingers, but for that one suspended moment, the world narrowed to just this: skin, bond, relief. Nothing else mattered. Nothing else existed. Only her in his arms. Only him beneath her hands. Only the unspoken vow now blazing between them, fierce as fire and twice as unbreakable.

But there was one more place he had togo.

They moved fast. Together. Through the halls. Back to the lab where it all began. Where Selyr’s voice had first reachedthem.

Tor’Vek kicked in the finaldoor.

But the room was empty.

Tor’Vek froze, instincts flaring. The scent was wrong. The air too still. No warmth, no residual breath, no trace of life. He felt it a second before he sawit.

A shimmer in the center flickered, the light bending unnaturally—then resolved into Selyr’s hologram.

Tor’Vek stepped towardit.

“Coward,” he growled.

“Cautious,” the hologram replied.

“Where areyou?”

“Far enough. Fornow.”

Tor’Vek’s bracelet lit again.

And for the first time, Selyr’s voice wavered.

“That wasn’t supposed to happen.” There was a pause, then a crackle of static, as if Selyr couldn’t decide whether to end the transmission or press further. “What is it evolving into?” he murmured. “Whatareyou becoming?”

The warrior’s eyes narrowed.

“Prepare yourself,” Tor’Vek said coldly. “Because this is only the beginning.”

Chapter6

THE HOLOGRAMof Selyr flickered out, but his presence lingered there, poisoning theair.

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