Page 64 of Darkness and Deceit
I’ve heard whispers about the blue flame. Enough to know it’s not just heat—it’s rot. Magic that lingers. That scars. The kind of flame that doesn’t just burn your body, but hollows out what’s underneath.
Some say it severs your magic from the inside. Others say it stains your soul.
And now it’s touched my mate.
My mate.
I reach for the bond.
It’s faint.
But it’s still there.
Like the echo of a heartbeat in a broken room.
“I’m here,” I whisper. “You’re not alone.”
No answer.
I sit on the bed and rest my head against his shoulder. His heartbeat is slow. Weak. But steady.
“You stupid, stubborn asshole,” I breathe. “Itoldyou I wanted to come with you.”
Tears sting, but I blink them back.
“You should’ve let me. I could’ve helped. I could’ve?—”
I stop myself.
Because it doesn’t matter now.
What matters isthis. Him. Alive, barely. Still mine.
I can’t afford to break now.
This moment, this pain, this helplessness—I’m done with it. I bottle it up inside me, ready to unleash the second I know Kai will make it.
Because there will be no more sitting on the sidelines. No more locked doors or sealed wards. I will never be left behind again.
The Keepers want to keep their secrets?
Fine.
But I’ll take their knowledge.
Because what’s the point of having this power if I can’t use it to protect the people around me?
If it can’t stop the ones I care about from ending up like this—broken, burning, bleeding out in some healer’s ward—then what good is it?
I’m tired of being a warning sign in someone else’s book. Tired of being told to wait, to rest, to trust them. My magic doesn’t wait. It wakes me in the night. It drags me through forests. If I don’t learn how to control it… I’ll never stop fearing myself.
So I’ll train. Alone, if I have to. In secret, if I must.
Maybe then the stares, the whispers, the judgment… maybe all of it would be worth it.
If I could just make it mean something.
If I could makethismean something.
