Chapter 110
Chapter 110
*Nathaniel*
The Mirror Fang hadn’t moved in days.
I kept it wrapped in leather, pressed against my side like a second spine, carried not for battle but for remembrance. It had been quiet since the last leyline flare–since the vision of her in flame, her voice a whisper across realms I didn’t know how to reach.
But this morning, it stirred.
I woke before dawn, the forest heavy with mist and the air taut like a bowstring. The others were still sleeping, their dreams woven with the weight of prophecy, of war, of the girl we all loved and feared in different ways. I sat up slowly, the pain in my ribs from our last border scuffle a dull ache I’d grown used to. But the burning beneath my skin? That was new.
The Mirror Fang pulsed once.
Not loudly.
But enough to make my fingers tremble.
I unwrapped it carefully. The runes carved into the blade’s spine had begun to glow–not bright, but steady, like coals just before they catch. I held it closer to the earth, near the leyline edge where we’d camped, and the pulse deepened.
She was close.
Not physically. Not yet.
But her magic had passed through here. Recently.
The bond was dead. I knew that. Had felt it snap like a bone breaking clean. But this… this wasn’t the bond awakening. This was the scar learning how to speak.
And it was calling her name.
I stood and turned slowly toward the eastern ridge, where the veil between realms was thinner, the trees older, the wind less inclined to obey natural law. That was where the pulse pointed. Where the fire inside her wanted to go.
And I remembered something Bastain once told me.
“The veil doesn’t crack because the realms are fragile. It cracks because wolves like you were never meant to love things that burn.”
I didn’t know what I was doing anymore.
Not really.
I loved her.
But loving her hadn’t saved her.
Not when it mattered.
Behind me, the sound of footsteps–light but firm–cut through my thoughts. I didn’t turn. I didn’t have to.
Eva stepped beside me, arms crossed against the chill.
“It reacted again,” she said, nodding toward the blade.
“Worse than before.”
She tilted her head, studying me like I was some puzzle she still hadn’t decided whether to solve or abandon. “And what are you going to do about it?”
“I follow it.”
“And if she’s not the same?”
“I don’t care.”
Eva’s voice was quiet, but sharp. “You should.”
I finally turned. “She’s still her. I felt it.”
“I’m not saying she isn’t.” Her eyes softened. “I’m saying she might not want to be.”
That landed like a blow I didn’t expect.
Eva continued, voice steadier now. “You’ve been chasing her like a mate. Like a wolf who believes love is enough to undo everything she’s been through. But she’s not looking for a bond anymore.”
“She’s looking for herself,” I said.
Eva nodded. “And if you keep showing up with your heart in your hands, she might not recognize you at all.”
1/3
Chapter 110
The silence between us stretched.
She didn’t break it.
I did.
“I know,” I said.
Eva blinked.
“I know I’ve been trying to save her the way I would’ve before. But this… this isn’t about love. It’s not even about the bond. It‘ s about something deeper.”
“Then what is it?” she asked.
I looked east again, toward where the veil thinned and the world tilted sideways.
“It’s about reflection,” I said. “She’s becoming something else. Something raw. If I want to find her… I have to be what she sees in herself.”
“Not a mate,” Eva said.
“A mirror.”
She studied me for a moment longer, then touched my arm gently. “Then let’s get you there.”
We returned to camp just as the others were waking. Ethan knelt beside the map Bastain had left us, tracing routes with careful fingers. Maximus leaned against a tree, sharpening a blade that didn’t need it, his gaze unreadable. I nodded to them both, then spoke.
“There’s a Veil Gate due east. I got confirmation from one of the old Veilborn contacts. It hasn’t been opened in decades, but it’s close to where the leyline reacts strongest.”
“Jiselle’s next eruption,” Ethan said.
Maximus looked up sharply. “You’re sure?”
I held up the Mirror Fang.
The runes pulsed once.
Maximus frowned but said nothing.
Ethan began organizing supplies immediately–no hesitation, no fear. He had grown quieter since our reunion, more focused. He didn’t blame me for what happened to his sister. But he hadn’t forgiven himself, either. And he wasn’t going to make the same mistake twice.
He was preparing for war.
Eva began writing rune–wards along the inside of our packs–nothing offensive, just protection. Layers upon layers of defense that, she admitted, might not work if Jiselle chose to reject them. But it was something.
Maximus joined me at the edge of the clearing later that afternoon, the sky streaked with the first hints of stormlight. “You’re changing,” he said without preamble.
“You think?”
“You were chasing her like she was prey. Now you’re hunting her like she’s sacred.”
“She is.”
“She’s also dangerous.”
“I know.”
Maximus exhaled. “You still love her?”
“With everything.”
He looked away. “Then be ready to bury that love if she forgets what it feels like.”
“I’m not going there to remind her of what we were,” I said. “I’m going there to see who she is now.”
His gaze cut back to mine. “Then I’ll follow you.”
That surprised me more than I let on.
Not because we were friends. We weren’t. Not really. But because Maximus loved her too, in his own quie powerful way. And hearing him say he’d follow me meant he was choosing her–not his pride.
uriating,
The journey to the Veil Gate took two days.
The woods grew stranger the deeper we moved. Trees bent in unnatural curves. The light filtered through the canopy in colors that shifted too quickly–sunlight tinged with blue, then violet, then gold. It made the air feel like glass, like the forest itself was watching.
2/2
Chapter 110
When we reached the base of the cliff that marked the Veil Gel’s outer edge, 11
A hum
Not magic.
Not even memory.
Something older.
Ethan stepped beside me, his voice quiet. “This is the closest I’ve ever felt her?
“She’s near, Eva confirmed. “But she’s not waiting”
“She’s burning,” I said.
Maximus looked up at the gate. “Then let’s pray we’re not too late?
That night, I sat alone by the fire, the Mirror Fang in my lap.
I didn’t hold it like a weapon,
I held it like a question,
And this time, I didn’t ask how do I save her?
I asked:
Can I let her become someone I can’t follow?
The blade didn’t answer,
But the runes stayed dim.
For now.
