2026-06-12 08:25:05
Previous Chapter
Latest Chapter
Chapter Forty
Though the house and everyone felt safe and happy,there was still danger lurking. Nighttime the shield cracked suddenly.No warning. Just a sound like glass breaking across the sky. The ward over the house shattered. Cold air poured in. And Malakai stepped through the gap like he’d been waiting on the other side.Malakai. Tall, Scarred and Eyes black with no white. Power rolling off him in waves that made the walls hum.“Well,” he said. Voice old and amused. “look what we have here.”Everyone was on their feet in seconds. Eryn was in front of Sophia before he thought. Aria’s portal hand flared blue, between Malakai and all of them. Kael slowed time in a bubble around Lyra. Lyra’s triple wall slammed up, all three layers at once.Terrakaiya floated forward. Eyes gold and serious. “You’re not supposed to be here.”Malakai smiled. “Plans change, little Guardian. I have waited long enoigh I wanted to see who the threads have chosen myself.”Malakai didn’t attack right away. He tested. A
Chapter Thirty-Nine
The night was quiet. Too quiet. Like the air was holding its breath.Eryn didn’t move. He just stood there, watching Aria watch him. The blanket between them felt thinner than it had a minute ago. The space felt smaller.Aria’s fingers twitched against the fabric. She didn’t pull her hand away. She didn’t close the distance either. Not yet.“You’re doing that thing again,” she said softly.“What thing?”“That thing where you look at me like you’re trying to decide if it’s safe to want this.”Eryn exhaled. He had no answer for that. Because she was right. He was always calculating. Always measuring risk. Even now.“I don’t know how to do this,” he admitted. The words came out rough, honest. “I know how to survive. I know how to fight. I don’t know how to… stay.”Aria shifted. She didn’t touch him. She didn’t need to. Her voice was steady. “Then don’t think about staying. Think about now. Just this moment.”He looked at her. Really looked. Not as a threat. Not as a variable. As her. The
Chapter Thirty-Eight
No alarms. No portals. No wards. For the first time since everything, the house was just… quiet. The shield hummed steady. Sophia and Andrew slept in real beds with real blankets. No chains. No gold eyes watching.Eryn sat on the porch steps at dawn. Sleeve rolled up. The closed loop was quiet now. No pulling. Just a faint pulse.The door opened behind him. Soft footsteps. Not trying to hide. Just not trying to be loud.Aria sat down beside him. She brought a blanket instead. She draped it over both their shoulders.“You didn’t sleep,” she said. Not a question.“Did you?” Eryn asked.“No,” Aria admitted. She leaned her shoulder against his. Didn’t move away. “Kept listening for footsteps. Old habit.”Eryn pulled the blanket tighter around them. “Me too. But different footsteps now.. Just… her. Breathing.”Aria nodded. They sat like that for ten minutes. No talking. “You’re good at quiet,” Aria said finally. Voice low.“You’re good at staying,” Eryn replied. He turned his head. Her f
Chapter Thirty-seven
Level three.The air was colder here. Wet concrete. The smell of rust and old rain. The only light came from Eryn’s closed loop, glowing faint gold and pulsing with Sophia’s heartbeat.Three doors. Iron. No handles on the outside. Just one keyhole in each, shaped like a keyhole with a line through it. Liona’s mark.Eryn pressed his palm to the first door. The keyhole on his arm flared. Gold met gold. The door clicked open. No sound. No alarm. Sophia’s magic recognized him.Inside: a small room. Cot. Bucket. And Sophia.Real Sophia. Not Liona’s gold eyes. Brown. Tired. Thin. But her. She was sitting on the cot, knees pulled up, when the door opened. She looked up, squinted at the light, then froze.“Eryn?” Her voice was hoarse. “Is that… is that really you?”Eryn didn’t answer with words. He stepped inside and dropped to his knees in front of her. No hesitation. “It’s me,” he said. Voice rough. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry I didn’t know. I’m sorry it took this long.”Sophia stared at him
Chapter Thirty-six
An old building ,3:14am. No lights. Just concrete, rust, and air that tasted like old metal and forgotten things. Eryn pressed his palm to the closed loop. Sophia’s heartbeat came through faint but steady.“Below us,” he whispered. “Three levels. Same as the other building.”Aria opened her portal. Not four feet this time. Two feet. Narrower, but deeper. Straight down into black. No wobble. No sound. “One minute hold,” she said. Voice steady. “Then we extend.”Eryn layered illusion over it. Made the broken tile floor look solid. “Anchoring,” he said. He used the tracker pull as weight. The keyhole pulsed. Sophia, somewhere below, pulsed back.Kael and Lyra moved ahead. Wards covered the stairwell down. Old magic. Liona’s work. Gold lines etched into the concrete, humming low enough to make teeth ache.Lyra knelt, fingers hovering over the first line. “Light touch,” she murmured. “If I break it wrong, they’ll know.”Kael crouched behind her. Not touching. Just close. His time magic
Chapter Thirty-five
The house was quiet after Liona and Lyrien walked through the wall. Too quiet. Like the air was waiting to see if they’d scream.No one screamed. Eryn sat on the floor, back against the couch. Staring at his arm. The closed loop pulsed once every few seconds. Not pulling. Just… waiting. Like a door with someone knocking from the other side.“Sophia’s voice,” he said quietly. “That was her. At the end. She’s still in there. Somewhere.”Aria sat beside him offering whatever comfort she can.“You didn’t know,” she said again. Softer. “Liona wore her for a long time. Of course you believed it.”“I should’ve noticed,” Eryn muttered. “The eyes. The way she asked about Andrew. The way she never ate when we studied.”“You noticed when it mattered,” Aria said. She turned his wrist gently, looked at the keyhole in the loop. “The tracker’s listening to her now. Not just Liona. Sophia’s fighting from inside. That’s why it changed.”Across the room, Kael was pacing. “They took the faces. They di
You may also like
Dia: A Lover's Revenge
Zuxian12.8K viewsHE BROKE ME FIRST
DMARTIN336.8K viewsBeyond the Divorce
Third Blossom3.0M viewsMermaid's Kiss
Adejumo Israel10.1K viewsDamion Lancaster is Secretly The Trillionaire Boss
LuluWrites8.0K viewsThe Billionaire’s Secret Guardian
Chizurum Enyinnaya1.9K viewsDark Days Under a Black Sun
Desmond Baiden 1.9K views