Page 51 of Elemental Becoming

“Then don’t,” I say softly, brushing my thumb across his knuckles. “But don’t rush into a fight you’re not ready for, either.”

He exhales through his nose, gaze dropping between us. The bond pulses and I know he feels it too.

A long pause stretches between us.

Then, barely more than a breath— “She was trying to save us.”

I still.

“What?”

His fingers curl, not into a fist, but like he’s trying to grasp something just out of reach.

“My mother. She wasn’t losing herself. She was trying to save us. And we let her die thinking we had already lost her.”

The bond hums quietly between us, but something else thrums beneath it—like an echo of her voice, long gone.

Not madness.

Not surrender.

A mother’s last act of protection.

My throat tightens, my heart breaking all over again. I don’t have answers. I don’t know how to fix this. So I do the only thing I can.

I hold onto him.

He bows his head, shoulders curling further inward, but he doesn’t fall apart this time.

The gentle breeze stirs the edges of my hair, cool against my damp cheeks. The torches flicker in the halls beyond, casting long shadows across the stone. Below, the city is finally quiet, its lights dim in these late hours of the night.

But here, sitting with Thane, nothing feels still.

I feel it in him, in the way his body holds tension even in exhaustion. In the ache that hasn’t settled, that might never fully settle.

Just breathing in the weight of what has changed . . . and what can never be the same again.

I don’t know how long we stay like this—kneeling on the floor, hand in hand, sitting with the truth that can’t be undone.

Eventually, I squeeze his hand.

“Let’s go to bed.”

I shift to stand—but I don’t let go. I won’t.

Thane doesn’t move at first. He just looks up at me, his storm-gray eyes hollowed by everything that’s come undone tonight.

He’s always been unyielding. Unstoppable. Larger than life.

And yet, right now, he looks so small.

It tugs at something deep inside me, something tender and aching.

I tighten my hold on his hand.

Thane nods, then stands. He doesn’t speak, but lets me lead him inside. Hand in hand, we walk back to his quarters.

The bond hums softly between us. The shadows are gone,leaving only the weight of what’s been said, and all that still lingers between us.