Page 44 of Elemental Becoming

Something shifts in Thane’s expression, small, but unmistakable. Recognition.

Or fear of it.

“No,” he says under his breath. “That’s not—”

But the thought is already there and it doesn’t let go.

“What if he didn’t succumb to grief?” I press, quieter now. “What if he was resisting something else?”

Silence stretches between us.

“Something no one knew was there?” I venture.

Thane exhales sharply. “You think the curse took him . . . differently.”

I don’t answer. I don’t know yet. But I feel it—the contradiction. The shadow element shouldn’t behave like this. It shouldn’t feel . . . safe. We were taught it was evil. And yet, it’s reacting to the bond. Not resisting it.

A sharp inhale pulls me back to the present. Thane’s chest moves up and down, his breath coming fast. His eyes dart, unfocused, like he’s chasing something just out of reach.

“What is it?”

“Rowena took notes on all of our mother’s ramblings, what she drew on walls. The rest of us dismissed it as random ravings of a sick mind—none of it made any sense. Most of it wasn’t legible—just markings. Sometimes she did write words that we could read, but the sentences were broken and didn’t make sense.”

He covers his mouth with his hand, brows furrowing, as the memories come flooding back.

“By all the Elemental Gods,” he breathes. “During her last few days before she took her life, she wrote, ‘all is not as it seems, help him.’ Do you think she meant my father?!”

I think of his father. Going still. Listening. Trying to speak. Not fully lost like his mother, but maybe fighting.

My pulse stutters. This isn’t random.

The bond surges—tightening, sharpening—until there’s no space left between what I feel and what’s his.

Thane’s eyes widen, searching my face as something shiftsbetween us. And for the first time, he sees it too.

The air between us hangs heavy, like a storm waiting to break.

Then the shadows move.

Darkness spills outward, swallowing the torches, the city lights—even the stars.

Everything.

The shadows hold us, cradling, like they know us.

My breath stutters, a soft tremor in the void around us. I can barely make out his face, though he stands inches from me.

“Thane—”

He lifts his hands, staring at them in horror.

“I don’t—” His voice breaks. “This has never happened without me wielding it. Amara, I’m not doing this.”

The bond slams against my ribs. A heartbeat in the dark. And something in the shadows answers, pulsing with the bond.

Thane’s mouth falls open. My pulse stutters, but I don’t resist it. The bond lights the way.

And I finally understand.