Page 82 of Claimed By Stone
You were made to love—not to be used.
To break the brutal bond forced upon you, destroy the source.
The crystal.
The one in the war room.
I didn’t question how I knew. It wasn’t a puzzle to solve—it was divine truth, sliding into place like the final piece of a mosaic.
And I knew what had to happen.
Thavros had to destroy it.
I reached for him—not physically, not even with magic, but through the bond that still pulsed between us like a living thing. I didn’t know if he’d hear me, but Ipushed, filling it with everything I had left.
Smash it,I whispered through our tether.Set us free.
And then the warmth expanded—light unraveling from my ribs, from my fingertips, from the very stone of me.
I wasmelting.
Not like fire. Like sunlight on frost. Like being gentlyreleased.
The warmth didn’t stop.
It spread through me in waves, melting stone from the inside out, unwinding chains I hadn’t even known were still there. This wasn’t floating to the surface. This wasbecoming. This wasreturning.
I could feel my fingers again—tingling, stiff, then flexing slightly. My lungs drew in air, slow and shaky. I didn’t open myeyes yet. I didn’t need to. My awareness was stretching ahead of me like sunbeams through clouds.
I could feel the room.
The crystal was shattered.
The magic was freed.
And Thavros…
His energy was still there, wild and steady all at once. He had done what I asked. He hadtrustedme.
That truth wrapped around my heart like silk and steel.
And then—voices. Muffled at first, then sharpening into focus.
“Take him away,” Khuldruk said, his voice thick with sorrow. “But do not hurt him.”
The pain in his words lanced through me. Grief. Confusion. Duty.
He didn’t understand. Not yet.
My eyes fluttered open, yet I was still unable to move. I was slowly coming into consciousness.
The ceiling above was the vaulted stone of the war room. Warm light filtered from torches—and from something else.Me.
I sat up.
Slowly.
My limbs responded like they remembered how to move, but everything was different. My skin was still marble-white, smooth and gleaming—but the veins that ran beneath the surface shimmeredgold. Like light had sunk into my body and refused to leave.
