Blackness. Total blackness.
He wasn't supposed to die now. Not yet. Not while she was still out there— terrified, alone, touchable by that thing.
But then—
He tasted it.
Warm.
Sweet.
Vanilla and moonlight.
It hit his tongue like fire and salvation all at once. He swallowed, and the taste exploded again. Stronger. Deeper. Familiar in a way he couldn't explain, like a memory he never lived but always longed for.
Then breath— shallow but real— burned into his lungs.
Her scent filled him.
The pain came next. Not the agony of before, but a different kind of pain— purging, cleansing. His bones cracked back into place, fire racing down his spine as it healed.
Wounds across his stomach closed. The blackness receded like a nightmare at dawn.
He kept drinking. His hand found the source, clutching it tighter, needing more.
Mine.
Her blood poured in like the moon feeding the tide. And he rose.
Fin opened his eyes.
And there she was.
Nova.
On her knees, her face pale, her wrist still in his hand. Relief flickering across her silver eyes like sunlight through trees. His salvation. His home.
Then her eyes fluttered and she collapsed forward on top of him.
"Nova," Fin breathed, sitting up fast. Her blood was still fresh in the snow behind her, smeared across the earth like a trail of sacrifice.
"Shit," He muttered, heart slamming in his chest. He had almost died.
He gently moved her hair from her face, his fingers trembling. Her neck was bruised— purpling in patterns that looked like hands had been choking her.
Rage surged in Fin's gut like acid.
That thing— that man— he touched her.
He bound her.
He remembered her screaming before the darkness took him. She'd watched him nearly die. And still, she saved him.
Fin pressed two fingers to her throat. A pulse. Weak, but there.
She was alive.
He forced the chaos in his chest into something steady and focused. Then he reached out.
Fin: Cael. Aeron. We were attacked. Wraithbeast and a man. Not shifter. Not mage. Something… darker.
The response was instant.
Cael: Are you okay? Cael asked, voice sharp with concern.
Fin: My spine was shattered and I was stabbed through many times. Nova saved me with her blood, but I'm still weak. I can't shift yet— not fast enough if it comes back.
Aeron's voice came next, urgent.
Aeron: And Nova?
Fin: She's alive. But barely. He forced her to shift. Bound her so she couldn't move. I think— I think he drank her blood from her skin. I can smell him on her.
There was a pause.
Aeron: Where are you?
Fin gave their coordinates, eyes flicking around the trees, adrenaline still humming through him like a war drum.
Aeron: Opening a portal now. Don't move.
The air next to them shimmered, cracking like lightning across glass. A portal formed— swirling.
Fin looked down at Nova in his arms. She looked weightless. Too pale. Too still.
"I've got you," He whispered, lifting her gently. "You saved me. Now let me save you."