a's

e to

ver each other like wind through leaves, speaking

st

ken

ome

at a sky I shouldn't be able to see through the thick canopy of Shadowpine. But the trees

ed and put back together wrong. The corrupted bond still pulses

re..

ge louder, drown

here they brought us.

erfect circle, covered in carvings that seem to shift and writhe in the moonlight. Beyond

sacred

avey

r. Like you. Told we were blessed

ain is worse here. Sharper. Like something's pulling the corru

I whisper to

on. It will kill you slowly. Days, m

oo

. Death would be better than this. Better than

i

air around me shifts, thickening with power. The sil

glowing, standing among the headstones. Omegas. All of them. Their faces are young, old

you?" I

k hair and kind eyes. They brought us here under false pretenses. Told us we we

with rage. Took our power. Used it to create the alpha bl

mind struggling to p

They couldn't create alphas without destroying omegas fi

and I cry out, my bac

its move

rejection corrupted your bond. It

gasp. "I d

i

in. I force my eyes open, gl

not

s. But underneath that, you're furious. You want him to hurt

e

ious. Beneath the heartbreak and the agony, there's

rits say in u

oming from the ruins themselves, from the stones beneath me, from the grave

my skin a

. It feels good. Like being submerged i

point of contact with the stone, seepi

omeone like you. Someone broken enough to und

pathways I didn't know existed. Everywhere it

old agony becomes something else. Somethi

caressing my arms, my throat, my stomach. The spirits, reaching thr

sp, but I do

transformation. The binding. It

n't w

. You want choice. You want

God

an feel each spirit now, not just their presence but their deaths. The terror. The betraya

ience a

Single.

d me down, keeping me pressed against the stone as the

earing, silver lines spreading across my arms, my chest,

bond flare. Kael. He can sense somet

spirits whisp

ce growing fainter with each passing second

et her die. We will give

Not Senna. Ple

. The power is too much

isted, but undeniable. The power flowing into me doesn't just hurt. It feels like

. The marks spread further, climbing up m

ning silver from the roots down, the color l

spirits promise.

I'll survive

hildhood, simply stops existing. The emptiness is worse than the bond corruption

cre

s scream

ht that pierces the sky. The phantom hands vanish. The spirits step back. I'm alo

hing moves

om her death and the ruins' power and my own rage. A

er and older than Senna's ever

instant. The ruins bound themselves