Page 74 of Crossing Between
My stomach twisted with anxiety. "But I am one. We've seen what I can do."
"Yes," Quilith nodded. "That's why they demanded a piece of you to test for your magic."
"A piece of me?" I echoed, my voice rising slightly.
Quilith held up a placating hand. "Nothing invasive. I took your spare brush from your purse and took some of your hair. I hope you don't mind the intrusion, but I needed something that only you used."
I relaxed slightly, nodding for them to continue.
"The dragons ran magical tests. Complex, ancient magic that I don't fully understand myself. And at the end," they paused, looking at me with an expression I couldn't quite read. "Every one of them was shocked."
The room fell silent again. I could hear my own heartbeat thundering in my ears.
"Why?" Elias was kind but firm despite the tension radiating from him.
Quilith's eyes never left mine as they spoke. "Zoey has dragon blood within her bloodline."
My mouth fell open. "I'm sorry, what now?"
"Dragon blood," Quilith repeated. "It's happened in the past, but it's extremely rare. A hybrid is never able to take dragon form but gains their line's magic. And yours, Zoey, is that of a Soulbinder."
I felt like I couldn't breathe. Dragon blood? In me? I looked down at my hands, trying to reconcile this revelation with everything I knew about myself.
"That's not all," Quilith continued, their voice dropping even lower.
The heaviness in their tone made my head snap up. Whatever was coming next was the real reason fortheir distress.
"If Zoey were to become corrupted somehow, for example, if hatred filled her soul, she could become an Essencefeaster."
The word hung in the air like a death sentence. From the corner of my eye, I saw Varon go completely still, his face paling even more than it already was.
"What do you mean?" I whispered, though a part of me already knew, already feared the answer.
"Essencefeasters were originally failed Soulbinders. Dragons," Quilith' each word was careful and measured. "Ones who let grief, pain, or trauma twist their magic inward."
The room spun around me. I felt Kenji's arm tighten around my shoulders, anchoring me.
"Dragons of the soul line walk closest to the Veil," Quilith took my hand. "Your magic, Zoey, cancreate life, but if bent the wrong way, it consumes it instead. That's the path of an Essencefeaster."
Chapter 41: Elias
I stared at Quilith, their words hanging in the air like a physical weight pressing down on all of us. The silence that followed was deafening, each of us processing the implications in our own way.
My gaze swept across the room, my healer's instincts kicking in automatically. Everyone was in various states of shock.
Zoey sat rigid, her face drained of all color. Her fingers trembled against the fabric of my shirt she wore, and her eyes had a distant, unfocused quality that worried me. Her breathing was shallow and too rapid. A classic sign of shock setting in.
Kenji's reaction was the opposite. His jaw clenched so tightly I could see the muscles jumping beneath his skin. His hands curled into fists, knuckles white with strain. The air around him seemed to shimmer with barely contained heat as his oni nature struggled to manifest in response to his rage.
Varon had gone completely still, a statue carved from marble. His face was utterly expressionless, eyes fixed on some distant point. This was Varon at his most dangerous, whenthe ancient vampire retreated so deeply into himself that his humanity began to slip away.
And Quilith, the dragon who had traveled realms to bring us this information, looked ready to collapse from exhaustion. Their usually vibrant skin had dulled, and dark circles shadowed their eyes. Even their posture, normally so regal, had crumpled with fatigue.
This wouldn't do. We couldn't help Zoey if we all succumbed to shock and despair.
I stood abruptly and clapped my hands together, the sharp sound cutting through the suffocating silence.
"Right," my tone firm and clear. "Everyone's in shock, and that's not helping anyone, least of all Zoey. I'm going to check each of you over, starting with our Soulbinder."
