Page 46 of Elemental Becoming

But his own magics betray him. He steps back, breaking the space between us, but the shadows don’t release him. They wind around his body like a vine climbing a tree.

“If that were true . . . ” His voice cracks. “If my father wasfighting something—then why didn’t anyone know?”

His eyes lift, wild now.

“Why didn’t I know?”

I hold his gaze, forcing myself to stay calm, as I watch the man who commands the realm begin to fracture.

“Maybe no one knew what to look for.”

His eyes flick to mine, sharp, searching. I inhale softly, the sensation threading through me—his magics, the bond, moving together like something that belongs.

“I didn’t,” I admit quietly. “Not at first.”

I release one of his hands, tracing my fingers across his palm.

“But this—” I glance at the shadows, the way they move, the way they hold. “This isn’t what you think it is.”

I pull a measured breath into my lungs.

“I’m a girl who grew up on a farm who now channels all four Elements. You have Shadow Clan blood in your veins. Nothing about this is normal, Thane.” My voice steadies as I search his eyes. “Not the bond. Not the way your shadows respond to it.”

A beat.

“Maybe no one saw it clearly because no one’s ever seen it like this before.”

Thane exhales sharply. His hands clench. Release. Clench again.

His entire body trembles, the weight of realization pressing down on him. His shadows coil at his forearms, flickering and shifting.

The bond jolts inside me. And from the startled expression on Thane’s face, I know he feels it too. And then—he collapses.

It happens in an instant. One moment he’s standing. The next, his knees hit the stone.

“Thane!”

I lunge forward, catching his shoulders, gripping tight as if I can keep him from breaking apart completely.

He doesn’t push me away. His body shakes, hands rising to his face, pressing hard against his temples—like he’s trying to hold himself together. The shadows curl around him, winding up his arms, across his shoulders, down his spine.Embracing him.

And I know, they aren’t separate from him.

They are him.

“It’s not real,” he whispers, hoarse. “It can’t be real.”

His hands press harder against his eyes, like he can shut it out.

The truth.

The years.

The lie.

The bond shudders.

I rest my hands on his thighs, anchoring us both.