Page 73 of Elemental Becoming

When he pulls back, his thumb brushes over my cheek, lingering.

“I’ll be fine.” he smiles reassuringly.

Then he turns and strides toward the door, his steps sure, decisive. The room feels different without him. Quieter.

I stare down at my mug, the warmth fading beneath my hands.

Across from me, Valen pulls another book from the pile on the table, already absorbed, already searching for answers to questions that keep slipping further out of reach.

For a while, I sit there, absently flipping through a book Valen left on the table, my thoughts circling in restless loops.

The Unmaking.

The word alone feels like a fracture in the air, something ancient and wrong, something that was never meant to be spoken aloud. I try to piece it together—what Valen said, what little Sylas recorded, the fear that the Shadow Wardens held for it.

A force that doesn’t conquer or rule; it only consumes, unravels and erases.

I think of the Shadow Realm. How it was never a sanctuary, never a home, but a prison. A cage built to contain something beyond death. Something dangerous.

But then—what if we’ve been wrong about that, too?

The Shadow Clan.

The stories I grew up with. They were spoken about like they werethethreat. The aggressors. The ones who brought darkness into the world.

But that doesn’t fit.

Not with what we’ve seen. Not with what his father said.

The bond stirs.

A tug, low and insistent.

I still, my fingers tightening around the edge of the page.

Not with the way the shadows responded to Thane.

The bond tightens again, stronger this time, pressing against my ribs like something desirous of being noticed.

If the Unmaking is something separate—something that had to be contained—then what were they really fighting?

The thought settles, uneasy.

What if we’ve been wrong about the Shadow Clan? Whatif the Shadow Forces, the Unmaking—whatever this thing is—aren’t the same at all?

And if that’s true, if the Shadow Realm was sealed to stop the Unmaking, what does that mean for Thane? What does it mean for his bloodline?

If the Shadow Realm was a prison, and the Shadow Wardens were meant to stay inside it, then why did Thane’s ancestors survive? How did they leave when the realm was sealed? Did they escape?

Or were they forced out?

And whatever tether once bound the Wardens to their duty, to the Shadow Realm, to the thing they were meant to contain—it’s still there.

Still pulling.

I close my eyes, pressing my fingers against my temple, trying to quiet the endless storm of questions. But they don’t stop. No matter how I turn it, no matter how I try to fit the pieces together—one thought keeps rising. Relentless. Terrifying.

If the Unmaking is waking . . . then maybe something is calling Thane home.