In the Sanctuary, just behind the silhouette.
The light retracted around her like a breath.
The threads vibrated all at once...
Then one burst into flames.
The red thread.
It burned without burning.
It tore without touching.
It called without asking.
Lunaya reached out despite herself.
"No... wait."
Too late.
The thread caught her.
The world tilted.
Another night.
Another life.
Another her, again.
The air smelled of smoke.
The earth was hot.
The sky glowed red as if someone had bled a star.
She heard a roar.
Then a voice.
A deep voice.
Hoarse.
Vibrating with a violence that was not hatred, but pure protection.
"Back away from her."
She opened her eyes.
Dravik.
Not the one she vaguely knew.
Not the one she had encountered in a fragment.
Not the one Kael feared.
A Dravik before the war,
before the ruin,
before the fall.
He was gigantic.
Magnificent.
Braided with fire.
His golden eyes stared at her, not as a man looks at a woman...
But as an animal looks at its light.
She felt her chest tighten.
He stepped forward.
"They won't get you."
He instinctively placed himself in front of her.
Just like Kael.
But Kael protected out of love.
Dravik...
Dravik protected out of instinct.
Out of right.
Out of connection.
"Who... who was I to you?" whispered Lunaya, or the version of her in this vision.
Dravik slowly turned to her.
And in his eyes,
no gentleness,
no fear,
no distance.
Just raw truth.
"My other half."
The word shook the ground.
Lunaya took a step back, suffocated.
My...
Other half?
She wanted to speak, but couldn't.
Dravik grabbed her by the waist and pulled her closer with a wild but precise movement, as if someone had torn a piece of him away and he had just gotten it back.
His skin burned against hers.
Not painful.
Not dangerous.
Vital.
He lowered his head, his forehead touching hers.
"They tried to steal who I am."
His voice vibrated against her soul.
"They tried to steal you from me."
A roar erupted in the distance.
Shadows and feathers.
The ravens.
But not like today's.
These were more numerous.
More powerful.
More organized.
Dravik growled, flames running across his skin.
"They took away my right to keep you."
He pulled Lunaya close.
"They took away your memory."
His chest trembled.
"But they could never take... you."
A violent beat exploded in his chest.
The red thread glowed intensely.
The vision became a flame.
And in the middle of it, Dravik placed a hand on her neck, leaning his forehead against hers with a solemnity that took her breath away.
"When you are reborn... you will seek me out."
Lunaya gasped.
"I... I didn't seek you out."
A terrible silence.
Then Dravik's voice became hoarse.
"No."
His fingers tightened around her waist.
"But you missed me in the same way that I lost you."
Fire engulfed her.
Back in the Sanctuary
She fell back to her knees.
The red thread vibrated around her chest,
squeezing her heart like a warm, ancient hand.
She couldn't breathe.
She stared at her fingers,
still trembling from Dravik's touch.
"It was..."
She couldn't finish.
The figure reappeared in the light.
"He was your first bond.
The first name you breathed.
The first oath.
The one they tried to break first."
The weave pulsed.
Dravik, Kael, Erynd, Sahr...
And her at the center.
A shiver ran through her.
"You don't have to choose them.
Not now.
You just have to remember them...
the way they loved you."
The light fractured again.
And before Lunaya could breathe,
a fourth thread began to pulse.
Gold.
Luminous.
Fluid.
Amused.
Sahr.