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The courtyard was silent except for the crackle of falling ash. My body trembled as shadows crawled over my skin, sinking into me like living chains. My eyes burned, and though I tried to speak, only the sorcerer’s voice poured out.
“Finally.” He hissed through my lips, flexing my fingers as though testing the weight of my body. “A vessel strong enough to carry me.”
Elias froze only a few feet away. His chest heaved with ragged breaths, his shirt torn and soaked in blood. I could see the horror in his eyes, but also something sharper beneath it- rage, desperation, love.
“Let her go.<i>” </i>He growled, his voice raw. His ws glinted in the dim light, but his hands shook. “You don’t belong in her.”
The sorcererughed, the sound echoing through me until it felt like my ribs would split. She’s mine now. The girl opened her mind to me. All it took was a whisper, a seed of doubt, and look how quickly she bent.”
I screamed inside my own skull, but the sound never reached my throat. I could see, hear, feel everything–but I wasn’t in control.
The Ash Queen stepped forward, her crown glowing faintly as shadows tried to bite at her. You always underestimated her, sorcerer.” She said coldly. “That will be your downfall.”
“Empty words from a fallen queen.” He sneered. “You couldn’t stop me before. What makes you think you can now?”
<i>” </i>
The Ash Queen’s gaze flicked to Elias. Her eyes were sharp, calcting, though I saw worry etched in the tight line of her mouth. “We need to sever him from her spirit.” She said quickly. “While he’s still binding himself. If we wait, the merge will be permanent.”
Elias’s head snapped toward her. “How?”
“There’s only one way.” Her voice dropped, low and dangerous. “<i>Force </i>the <i>bond </i>with you, wolf. Drive it deeper, anchor her to you so tightly that the sorcerer cannot root himself.” <fndde0> Find the newest release on find~novel</fndde0>
The words cut through me like lightning. Force the bond? My heart–what was left of it- lurched at the thought. But the sorcerer onlyughed again, curling my lips into a smile.
“You think love will save her? How… quaint.”
Elias’s jaw clenched, his gaze locked on me. His eyes shimmered, golden and wild, his wolf straining at the edge of his skin. “I’ll do whatever it takes.”
< CHAPTER 127
*25 Points
The sorcerer raised my hand, and ck fire sparked to life in my palm. “Then you’ll die trying.”
The st tore toward Elias, searing the air. He dove aside, rolling across the cracked stone, the fire exploding behind him. He came up on his feet with a snarl, blood dripping from his arm where the st had grazed him.
“Fight him!” He shouted, his voice cracking. “I know you’re in there. Don’t let him take you from me!” Elias pleaded.
Inside, I wed at the darkness smothering me. I felt the bond pulsing faintly, buried beneath the sorcerer’s chains. It flickered like a candle in a storm, fragile but still there. I reached for it, desperate.
The sorcerer hissed. “Stay down.” Shadows mmed through me like iron bars, shoving me back into silence.
Elias charged. His ws raked across the stone as he lunged for me, but the sorcerer was faster. He raised my arm, and shadows whipped out like des, shing across Elias’s chest. He staggered back, blood staining his skin, but didn’t stop.
The Ash Queen raised her hands, summoning fire that burned white instead of ck. It shed with the sorcerer’s shadows, forcing him to turn part of his focus to her. “Now, wolf!” she shouted. “Push the bond–force her to remember you!”
Elias leapt again, dodging the shadows thatshed out at him. He grabbed my shoulders, holding me tight even as I thrashed under the sorcerer’s control. His golden eyes burned into
mine.
“Look at me.<i>” </i>He demanded, voice trembling. “You know me. You know my soul. I am yours- you are mine. Nothing can change that.”
The sorcerer spat through my lips. “She belongs to no one but me.”
Elias shook me, not in anger but in desperation, his forehead pressing against mine. His voice dropped to a whisper, rough and broken. “Please, baby. Feel me. Remember the first time we touched. Remember the bond snapping into ce. That wasn’t a trick, it wasn’t a lie. It was <i>us</i><i>.” </i>
The words pierced the shadows like sparks in the dark. I felt them, raw and real, tugging at the thread deep inside me. I pushed against the sorcerer’s grip with everything I had, wing toward that thread.
The sorcerer snarled. “No!”
Heshed out, flooding my veins with ck fire, trying to drown me. My scream tore
< CHAPTER 127
soundless inside my chest. My body jerked, and Elias’s grip almost slipped.
+25 Points
The Ash Queen’s fire roared higher, pushing the shadows back for a heartbeat. “Anchor her now, Elias, before it’s toote!”
Elias’s eyes glowed like the sun breaking through storm clouds. His voice rang withmand and love all at once. “I im you. Now and always. You are mine, and I am yours. Nothing–no sorcerer, no shadow–can ever break that.”
The bond red.
It was like a floodgate bursting. Heat seared through me, not from the sorcerer, but from Elias. Golden fire surged down the thread, wrapping around my soul, burning brighter than the shadows could withstand.
The sorcerer screamed, his voice twisting through my throat. “Stop! You’ll tear her apart!”
But I clung to the warmth, to Elias’s love, to the truth of who we were. The chains cracked, shadows splintering. Light poured through the cracks, burning the darkness from the inside
out.
I gasped, my own voice breaking through for the first time. “Elias-!”
The sorcerer roared in fury, fighting to stay rooted in me. My body convulsed as the two forces ripped against each other, threatening to tear me in half.
Elias held me tighter, refusing to let go. His wolf snarled through his voice. “Then I’ll tear you out of her myself!”
The Ash Queen’s fire surged, mming into me–not to burn me, but to burn the sorcerer. The shadows screamed as they recoiled from the heat, writhing and twisting.
And then the bond between Elias and me exploded in a wave of golden light.
The shadows ripped free from my chest, dragged out in a violent rush. I copsed into Elias’s arms, my breath ragged, my body trembling.
For a heartbeat, I thought it was over. That we had won.
But the sorcerer was not gone.
The shadows tore from me and coalesced a few feet away, writhing and screaming. They shaped themselves into a body–his body–taller, darker, more monstrous than before. His eyes glowed with endless hate.
“You think <i>you </i>can cast me out?” He snarled, his voice no longer bound to mine but louder,
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< CHAPTER 127
deeper, shaking the courtyard. “All you’ve done is set me free.”
+25 Points
Elias pulled me behind him, his ws bared, his chest rising and falling like a storm. The Ash Queen stepped to our side, her fire burning hotter than ever, her crown glowing like a second
sun.
For the first time, I saw fear in her eyes.
The sorcerer spread his arms wide. Shadows poured from the ground, crawling up the broken walls, blotting out the faint light of the moon. The air grew so heavy I could barely breathe. “This is no longer a battle for a vessel.” He said, his voice echoing like thunder. “This is war.” Elias growled low, his body coiled to strike. I clutched his arm, still trembling, my chest aching where the sorcerer had been.
The Ash Queen’s gaze flicked between us. “We bought you back.” She said quickly, “but it won’t be enough. To end him, we’ll need more than fire and ws. We’ll need—”
Her words cut off as the ground split open beneath us, shadows spewing upward like a ck tide. The courtyard shattered, and creaturesrger than any we’d faced wed their way into the world, eyes glowing red.
The sorcerer smiled, his teeth sharp as knives. “Shall we finish what we started?”
The monsters turned toward us, their roars shaking the broken stone.
Elias pulled me close, his golden eyes zing. The Ash Queen raised her hands, her fire sparking to life again.
The shadows were closing in, making us realize that he wasn’t going to give up. Not until we are all dead.
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