Page 42 of Elemental Becoming

At the same time, the shadows shudder—like something stirring awake.

I feel it inside me too.

Strange. Quiet . . . and familiar.

I push the thought aside and glance down.

Carefully, I turn Thane’s hands over, my thumbs brushing across his palms. They’re strong, calloused from years of fighting, of wielding a blade. Hands shaped by years of holding too much.

I lower my head, pressing a soft kiss into the center of each palm.

The moment my lips touch his skin, the shadows shift—then retract. Curling inward, like something lulled back to sleep.

Thane inhales sharply, like he doesn’t trust what just happened.

I still.

Because that doesn’t seem right. Curses don’t answer. They take and consume like a parasite. They hollow out until there’s nothing left. This—

This appears to . . .to listen.

I think of how they unfurled from Thane’s hands in his study when he first told us he was a descendant of the Shadow Warden.

Gods, was that only yesterday? It feels like months ago.

The shadows brushed along my skin like silk. Soothing, like balm over a burn. They curled around me. Not Valen.

Me.

And when they did, I felt . . . held. Then what have they been calling a curse?

Thane starts to pull his hands away, but I tighten my grip on them. For a moment, Thane’s fingers tense in mine like the same thought I’m having brushes his mind. His gaze drops to where our hands are joined.

I don’t think he even realizes it, but I feel it through our connection.

The bond pulses again. And something in the shadows shifts with it. Pulsing in time with the bond . . . aligning.

A chill moves through me, something unraveling in the back of my mind.

Thane believes the curse took his mother because she was the strongest Warden left. But if the curse was only meant to take those of Warden blood, why did it touch his father at all?

I hesitate, my thoughts catching, turning.

Of course they didn’t question it. It was easier to believe that the strongest man in the realm had been undone by grief than to consider something no one understood. No one knew what to look for. Because no one had ever seen this. No one has everfeltwhat I can feel because of the bond Thane and I share.

I swallow, my pulse loud in my ears.

“Thane.” My voice is barely more than a whisper. “What if it wasn’t grief?”

He looks at me, his brow tightening. “What do you mean?”

Doubt creeps in, but it doesn’t stop me.

“You said your father isn’t of Warden blood. That the curse shouldn’t have touched him.”

His fingers curl more firmly around my wrists this time, grounding himself.

“Yes,” he answers warily.