Flirting with the dark, p.34
Flirting With the Dark, page 34
“Yes. And that’s what makes her dangerous.”
Elias grunted his agreement.
“She’s not free. She’s following a function. And if that function is tied to your final transformation...”
His jaw tightened.
“...then she’ll keep pushing you toward it. Whether you survive it or not.”
Rowan’s stomach turned.
“What even is my final transformation?”
Kael didn’t look away.
“You won’t know until it starts.”
Elias growled.
“And we’re making damn sure she doesn’t start it.”
Rowan inhaled shakily.
“Then we need to understand the connection between us.”
Elias nodded slowly.
“I’ve been thinking the same thing. The bond pulled when she appeared.”
Kael stepped closer, lowering his voice.
“And Rowan reacted before she arrived.”
Rowan blinked.
“I—what?”
Kael touched her wrist gently.
“You trembled five seconds before the fracture opened.”
Elias nodded sharply.
“You felt her before we saw her.”
Rowan’s pulse stuttered.
“What does that mean?”
Kael exhaled.
“It means she’s linked to your core. Deeply.”
Rowan swallowed.
“Then can I—
Can I sense her now?”
The question shook Elias.
“Angel, don’t try—”
But Rowan closed her eyes.
Her glow dimmed, then pulsed—
once, twice—
thrum
thrum
thrum.
She reached into the place inside her that had changed during the convergence.
Where her light braided with shadow and seam-thread.
Where the bond lived.
Where power hummed.
And beneath all that—
something else.
Something cold.
Something fractured.
Something watching her from a distance she couldn’t measure.
Rowan gasped and jerked backward.
Elias caught her shoulders instantly.
Kael’s hands tightened around her forearm.
“What happened?” Kael asked, voice low and steady.
Rowan’s breath shuddered.
“She’s—
She’s not far.”
Elias’s shadows reared.
“How far?”
Rowan shook her head.
“I don’t know. It’s not physical distance. It’s like... she’s behind a curtain. Close enough to listen.”
Elias stiffened.
“Is she listening now?”
Rowan hesitated—
and that was answer enough.
Kael’s expression sharpened into something lethal.
“We have to break that link.”
Rowan shook her head quickly.
“No. If I break it, she’ll know I can. And that might provoke her.”
Elias exhaled sharply.
“So we’re letting her eavesdrop?”
Rowan clenched her fists.
“No. We’re using it.”
Both men paused.
Elias raised an eyebrow.
“How?”
Rowan lifted her chin, voice small but fierce.
“We feed her what we want her to believe.”
Kael blinked once, then nodded slowly.
“A false trail.”
Elias grinned—a dark, feral smile.
“I like it.”
Rowan looked between them.
“We make her think I’m weaker than I am.
We make her think the bond is unstable.
We make her think I’m afraid of something I’m not.”
Kael rested a hand against her shoulder.
“She’ll underestimate you.”
Rowan nodded.
“And when she does—
we trap her.”
Elias’s shadows rose like smoke at her feet.
“That’s step one,” he said.
“Step two is figuring out how to fight something we can’t touch.”
Kael exhaled slowly.
“We research the origins. The early seam-studies. The creation myths. If she’s tied to Rowan’s core, there must be lore about counterforces.”
Rowan frowned.
“Where do we find that?”
Kael’s expression was grim.
“The sanctuary ruins.”
Rowan’s glow flickered.
The place where Rowan had first touched magic.
The place where the seam had reached for her.
The place that had burned itself into her memory.
Elias sighed.
“Of course it’s the ruins. Why wouldn’t it be?”
Rowan swallowed.
“When do we leave?”
Kael’s answer was immediate.
“Now.”
But before Rowan could move—
the Threshold floor pulsed under their feet.
A warning.
A ripple.
A voice Rowan felt deep in her spine:
“YOU ARE NOT ALONE IN THE SEARCH.”
Rowan froze.
Elias cursed under his breath.
Kael straightened.
Rowan whispered:
“What does that mean?”
The seam’s whisper echoed again:
“SHE SEEKS THE RUINS TOO.”
Rowan’s blood ran cold.
Elias’s shadows exploded outward.
Kael’s hand closed tightly around Rowan’s wrist.
“She’s going there,” Rowan whispered.
“To find what I’m meant to become.”
Kael nodded once.
“And we have to get there first.”
Rowan’s glow pulsed.
“We won’t make it in time.”
Elias’s hand found hers, grip fierce.
“Then we make her think she’s already ahead.”
Kael’s eyes narrowed.
“A trap before the trap.”
Rowan inhaled deeply.
“Then we move now.”
Elias nodded.
Kael stepped toward the shimmering passage that led out of the Threshold.
“For Rowan,” he murmured.
Elias squeezed her hand.
“For all of us.”
Rowan swallowed.
“For the convergence.”
And the Triad stepped forward—
into the hunt.
CHAPTER SEVENTY-SEVEN
The air around the Threshold rippled—
a shiver of space bending inward,
then snapping outward
as the realm released the Triad back into the mortal world.
Rowan stumbled as her boots hit solid ground again.
Familiar ground.
She sucked in a breath.
The sanctuary forest.
The same ancient grove where she had first touched the seam,
first felt its pull,
first come undone.
Elias landed beside her with a soft grunt—
Kael stepped through last, steady as always, but his eyes flicked immediately to Rowan’s shaking hands.
“You okay?” Elias murmured.
Rowan nodded, though she wasn’t sure it was true.
“It feels different,” she whispered.
Kael inhaled slowly, nostrils flaring as if tasting the air.
“Because the seam recognizes you now,” he said quietly.
“And you recognize it.”
A chill trailed down Rowan’s spine.
The trees stretched tall around them, silver bark glowing faintly under the dim filtering light.
The air hummed with old magic—
older than Rowan’s life,
older than any hunter’s warnings,
older than the seam’s collapse.
Elias took her hand.
Kael walked ahead, scanning the clearing with a tense, purposeful focus.
Rowan looked around, heart thudding.
“I haven’t been here since—”
She stopped.
The memory clawed up her throat.
The night she had first lost control.
The night the seam had awakened inside her.
The night she had nearly torn the forest apart.
Elias squeezed her hand gently.
“You don’t have to say it.”
Rowan swallowed.
“I do.”
Kael turned back, waiting.
Rowan looked between them, voice soft and broken:
“This place remembers me.”
Elias’s jaw tightened.
Kael nodded grimly.
“It should. This is where everything began.”
Rowan’s glow pulsed faintly—
not bright,
not stable,
but responding to the forest like a heartbeat calling back.
The sanctuary itself stirred in response.
Leaves rustled without wind.
The ground thrummed faintly beneath Rowan’s boots.
Light caught in the air like floating dust.
Elias frowned.
“I don’t like this.”
Kael moved closer to Rowan’s side.
“The seam is waking.”
Rowan shook her head.
“No... not waking.”
Her eyes widened slightly as something inside her clicked.
“Listening.”
Elias stiffened.
“Listening for what?”
Rowan turned slowly.
“For her.”
Kael’s hand landed on Rowan’s back.
“She’s been here.”
Rowan nodded, pulse quickening.
Her core hummed—
a steady, forced rhythm,
like an echo of her own power
but colder
and thinner
and wrong.
Elias cursed softly.
“You can feel her?”
Rowan’s breath trembled.
“It’s faint, but yes.”
Kael exhaled.
“Then she’s ahead of us.”
Rowan shook her head.
“No. Not ahead.”
She pointed toward the center of the clearing.
“Below.”
Elias blinked.
“What do you mean below?”
Rowan stepped forward—
the ground vibrating beneath each step.
“The sanctuary ruins aren’t built on the forest,” she whispered.
“They’re beneath it.”
Kael stared at her.
“How do you know that?”
Rowan turned.
“Because the convergence unlocked memories in my core.
Things the seam remembered, but I didn’t.”
Elias’s voice softened.
“Show us.”
Rowan inhaled deeply—
and let the bond rise inside her.
Her glow brightened, slowly, painfully—
not the flare of raw power,
but the steady pulse of knowledge waking.
Her fingers tingled.
Her chest thrummed.
And the ground beneath her lit up.
A circle of faint symbols unfurled across the forest floor—
old, cracked lines of magic Rowan hadn’t been able to see before the convergence.
Elias stepped closer.
“Rowan... what is that?”
Rowan knelt, pressing her palm to the symbol at the circle’s center.
The forest went silent.
Completely.
Kael knelt beside her.
His eyes widened.
“You— you activated a warding ring.”
Rowan nodded slowly.
“But it’s not protecting us.”
Kael’s throat worked.
“It’s holding something.”
Elias shifted uneasily.
“What exactly is it holding?”
Rowan swallowed hard.
“Knowledge.
History.
A sealed chamber.”
She met Kael’s eyes.
“And a warning.”
Kael looked sharply at her.
“What warning?”
Rowan closed her eyes—
and the seam answered.
Through her.
The ground trembled beneath them.
A whisper rose from the earth itself.
Not Rowan’s voice.
Not the seam’s.
Something ancient, layered, fractured.
“THE CONVERGENCE BRINGS THE SHADOW OF ITSELF.”
Elias stiffened.
Kael’s expression hardened.
Rowan whispered:
“That’s about her.”
The voice continued, vibrating through Rowan’s bones.
“WHEN THE BALANCE RISES, ITS COUNTER MUST SEEK IT.
ONE CANNOT EXIST WITHOUT THE OTHER.”
Rowan’s hands shook.
Elias grabbed her shoulder.
“That doesn’t mean she gets to take you.”
Kael’s grip tightened on her other arm.
“But it means she will try.”
Rowan exhaled trembling.
“I already knew that.”
The voice changed—
deepened—
became something like a warning bell:
“IF THE FRACTURE REACHES THE HEART OF THE RUINS FIRST,
THE BALANCE WILL FALL.”
Rowan jerked back.
“What? Why?”
Kael’s voice dropped to a deadly whisper.
“Because the ruins contain the mechanism for your final transformation.”
Elias cursed under his breath.
“So if she gets there first—”
Kael nodded grimly.
“She might force the transformation on you.”
Rowan felt the air leave her lungs.
“No.”
Elias’s hands cupped her face instantly.
“No,” he echoed, firm and shaking all at once.
“She won’t.”
Kael rose to his feet, eyes scanning the clearing.
“Then we find the entrance.”
Rowan stood, knees trembling but will steady.
“And we get there before she does.”
But before they could take a step—
The ground split.
A hairline crack of blackened light ripped through the circle.
Rowan froze.
Kael yanked her backward.
Elias’s shadows surged to shield her.
Rowan’s pulse stuttered.
“She’s here,” she whispered.
Kael shook his head once.
“No.”
Elias growled:
“Then what is—”
Rowan stared at the crack, breath freezing in her chest.
“It’s her message.”
And then—
A cold, crystal-clear voice whispered through the crack:
“Catch me if you can, Rowan.”
The crack sealed.
The forest fell silent.
Rowan closed her eyes.
Kael cursed under his breath.
Elias wrapped an arm tightly around her waist.
Rowan whispered:
“She’s already inside.”
Kael nodded once.
“Then we go.”
Elias met Kael’s eyes.
“Together.”
Rowan steadied herself, breath deepening.
“For the convergence.”
And with a shared, silent agreement—
The Triad stepped toward the ruins.
Into the darkness the opposite had left behind.
CHAPTER SEVENTY-EIGHT
The ground recognized Rowan before she took the first step.
Stone shifted beneath her boots, cracking in a clean line through the warding ring.
Dust rose in a shimmering column, glowing faintly with seam-light—
responding to her.
Rowan swallowed hard.
Elias’s hand slid into hers, his shadows curling around her wrist like reassurance.
Kael knelt at the edge of the forming staircase as it carved itself downward, the forest floor folding open like a mouth.
“It’s not collapsing,” Kael murmured.
“It’s revealing itself.”
Rowan’s glow pulsed once, soft and steady.
“It’s letting me in.”
Elias frowned.
“And her.”
Rowan’s breath hitched.
Yes.
She could feel the opposite down there—
not close,
but not distant either.
A presence humming like a cold mirror beneath the earth.
Rowan stepped down onto the first stone step.
The staircase thrummed under her.
Kael rose smoothly and moved beside her, seam-light sparking along his fingertips as he traced runes carved into the stone walls.
“This script is older than the sentinels,” Kael said quietly.
“Older than realm-splitting magic. Older than anything we’ve studied.”
Elias snorted lightly.
“Fantastic. Ancient nightmares. Just what we needed.”
But Rowan didn’t laugh.
Her pulse sharpened.
Something in the carvings tugged at her, pulling her attention downward.
“I’ve seen these before,” she whispered.
Kael paused mid-step.
“Where?”
Rowan reached forward and brushed her fingers over a symbol—
a circle fractured through the center.
The moment she touched it, the stone glowed under her skin.
Kael inhaled sharply.
“That’s a convergence rune.”
Rowan’s voice trembled.
“And a fracture rune.”
Elias stepped closer, brow furrowed.
“Together? Why would they be carved together?”
Rowan swallowed.
“To warn us.”
The air grew colder.
A faint echo stirred down the stairwell—
not a voice,
but a breath.
Her.
Rowan’s hand shook, but she didn’t pull away from the symbol.
Kael touched the back of her hand gently.
“You don’t have to force this.”
Rowan shook her head.
“I’m not forcing anything. It’s... happening to me.”
Elias’s shadows wrapped her hips protectively.
“Then talk to us before it gets out of hand.”
Rowan nodded.
