Page 149 of Unravelled

The bond surged, no longer hollow. No longer broken. It roared through her. She felt Ren through it, all of him, raw, wild, and desperate. The unbearable relief. The agony of having ever lost her. The fury at the man who had stolen her. Mira pulled away suddenly, breath ragged, her fingers still tangled in the fabric of his shirt.

The bells. Loud. Droning. Unrelenting. A chill slid down her spine. If Caelric’s weight was lifted from her mind. If the bond was whole again. Then that meant… Her heart lurched. She didn’t explain. She couldn’t. She ran.

“Mira!” Ren’s voice cracked behind her, raw with confusion and fear, but she didn’t stop.

His panic surged through the bond. Wild. Sharp. Desperate. It clawed at her, but she pushed forward, feet pounding against the stone path. The night air thickened around her, pressing in as she tore through the hedges, twisting through the maze.

She burst into the courtyard. The Tahla tree towered above, its silver leaves whispering. But the air was wrong. Still. Heavy. Silent. She saw him. Tharion. He stood alone, unmoving, his back turned toward them. Ren skidded to a stop at her side, chest heaving.

“Mira, what is it?” Ren’s breathless voice came from behind her.

She couldn’t answer. He followed her gaze and froze. Tharion hadn’t moved. The space around him glowed. Her chest tightened. Her voice barely carried.

“Tharion, what have you done…”

A long pause. Then, he turned. Molten gold burned in place of his eyes. A firestorm behind his gaze, too bright, too unnatural. As if something far greater, far older, looked out through him.

Ren staggered back a step. Flames curled in Tharion’s hands, licking up his arms, twisting around his forearms like they belonged to him. The ground beneath him was scorched black, heat radiating off him in thick, suffocating waves.

His expression was empty. Blank. His body taut with something Mira had never seen before. Power like that was never given freely. Power that demanded suffering. Sacrifice. And it had passed to the only one standing when Caelric fell.

To one who had endured an endless duty. To one who had bled, not for glory, not for legacy, but for the love of his brother. For Ren.

Through the bond, she felt Ren’s horror crash into her, grief and understanding colliding in a single, unbearable wave.

Tharion had inherited Bharas' Heartfire.