Page 65 of Magic Claimed
Failed me.
But this fear… It was not just a normal fear. It felt like a living thing—coiled around Callum’s heart and giving teeth to a part of himself that he’d defeated many times already. He might have overcome the poison’s effects on his physical body, but another battle still remained.
The battle for his mind.
And maybe it made me a fool, but I wasn’t willing to wait for anyone to tell me how dangerous this was, or warn me about the potential for catastrophe. I wasn’t ready to hear the risks or listen to anyone else’s doubts.
Because this wasmybattle. Callum was my mate, and I would fight for him, no matter the outcome, knowing that my family would always have my back.
Whether I succeeded or failed today, the fight beyond this room would continue, because it wasn’t just about me. Blake would still be defeated. The missing kids would be found, The Portal would be fixed, and Ethan would be safe, because not a single one of my people would leave the others to face the pain, the sorrows, or the complications of life on their own.
For so long, I’d tried to face all my problems alone, hoping to stretch myself thin enough to defeat them all. But I never could. Time and time again, someone else had picked me up and set me on my feet. Someone had been my family.
So now I could face this fight, setting all otherfears aside. Even if this battle was my last, Ari and Logan would be taken care of. Kes would be protected. And that made me brave enough to turn in Callum’s arms and look him in the eye. Let myself sink into that stranger’s gaze and set my palm against his cheek.
“Don’t worry,” I said softly. “You’re in there, and I’m going to find you.”
And then I dove in. Past the broken walls, past the fear, past the storm, to the tightly coiled knot of emotions at Callum’s heart and the tangled threads of magic that made up our bond.
Where those threads had once glowed with power, they now lay dark and thorny. Flickers of power surged, but they did not welcome me as they once had.
I didn’t stop, and I refused to be afraid. Instead, I took hold of Callum’s shirt, and tugged his head down until his forehead rested on mine. He did not resist, as if somehow, he still knew I wasn’t going to hurt him.
“I won’t let you go,” I told him simply. “I don’t know what demons you’re fighting right now, but I won’t let this poison have you.”
A groan wrenched from his throat—a sound of agony that tore at my heart, but I did not back down.
“You are mine, Callum-ro-Deverin, and I will do battle with whatever tries to take you from me. Whether it’s your mom, or Blake, or the entire Shapeshifter Court. There is nothing I won’t try. No one I won’t fight. So if you’re hiding from this—hiding from our bond—know that I won’t stop coming. I won’t stop digging. I won’t stop trusting that you’ll come back to me.”
He began to shiver—first almost imperceptibly, then inearnest. Powerful tremors shook his body, from his broad shoulders to the strong arm that still wrapped around my waist.
“I know you’re scared,” I murmured. “I know this poison is trying to tell you that you’ve failed. But you haven’t failed until you give up, and I know that’snot you. You promised to fight for me. For us. So come back,” I pleaded. “Take my hand.Rememberme.”
I had no idea what I would do if this didn’t work. If all of our history together was just… gone. The thought of it tried to stop my breath and brought hot stinging tears to my eyes, but I pushed through.
“Remember how we met,” I insisted. “That night at The Portal, I didn’t even like you. I was afraid you might hurt my family, so I didn’t trust you, and I know you didn’t trust me, either. And then you made it worse when you tried to blackmail me.”
It seemed so long ago that we’d looked at one another with anger or distrust. So long ago that we’d existed as no more than employer and employee.
“But you have to remember how many times we’ve saved each other—enough that we’ve had to stop counting because it doesn’t matter anymore. Not when you’re mine to save, and I’m yours. And Iamyours, Callum. No holding back. You’re stuck with me until the breath leaves my body and my heart stops beating, and maybe even then there will be a part of me that won’t let go, for as long as either of us lives.”
I had no way of knowing whether our bond was truly complete, but if I’d had the means, I would have made it so inthat moment. No questions, no doubts. This man, this dragon, was mine.
“So you can’t quit. Because right here, right now, I’m claiming you. This is it. No going back. Not for either of us. Whatever this poison tries to take from you, it’s going to have to beat me too. Do you hear me, Callum?It’s going to have to defeat me too!”
I had no one to tell me what to do. No idea how mate bonds truly worked. But with our foreheads pressed together, my tears hot on my cheeks, and his hand trembling where it rested on my neck, I reached out and touched that strange kernel of raw emotion that he carried somewhere within him.
It was the very heart of our bond, and I poured my own magic into it—a fierce, sharp torrent of power that blazed through the shadows, scorching the lingering doubts and piercing to the heart of the darkness that smothered him.
In that moment, my magic was neither fae, nor elemental, nor siren, nor shapeshifter—it was simply raw power, burning with determination and driven by the fear of losing him forever.
And just as Callum had found me in the middle of a tornado and saved me from the howling winds, I found him in that storm of poison and self-doubt and refused to let go.
The maelstrom tore at me, shredding my mind and my will with the stinging claws of fear, but I held on. Clung to my memories and my certainty that after all we’d been through, no poison, no assassin’s blade, was going to take him from me.
I had no idea how long we stood there, locked together, grappling with that unseen enemy. It could have been mere minutes, hours, or even days. But eventually my power began toebb. My strength began to fail. I knew my knees were about to buckle, and I still could not tell if I’d done enough.
“Callum. Can you hear me?” I gripped his shirt collar like a lifeline—the only thing holding me up. “Do you know who I am?”
