Elle sobbed, her fists pounding uselessly against the golden shield that held her back.
"Please," she whispered hoarsely, tears streaking down her face. "Please let me go to him…"
Fin didn't flinch. His jaw was locked, gaze hard on Cael, not Elle. His heart splintered, but he held firm. If their places were reversed, if he were the one on the ground, Cael would restrain Nova without hesitation, as he should. Cael would never forgive him if something happened to Elle.
More assistants arrived, gold bubbles automatically forming when they got near. Each sprinting with sloshing buckets of water. Steam and hissing rose with each splash as the water hit Cael and Aeron's skin. Black smoke shot upward, thicker this time—angrier. The kind of magic that clung to life. That fed on pain.
Then it happened.
Elle's breath caught, her body tensing.
Her eyes… snapped open.
They glowed — a brilliant, unnatural green, vivid and inhuman. No pupil. No whites. Just pure emerald flame. A sharp, electric hum pulsed in the air around her.
Fin didn't see it — but he felt it.
His shields shivered, responding to her presence like they were brushing up against another force entirely.
Elias, kneeling beside Cael, looked up just in time. "What the…" he murmured, blinking. His hands paused mid-pour. "That's not—"
Jax turned his head sharply, sensing the shift.
Fin did too.
Both men's faces registered the same reaction — confusion, recognition, wariness. Their eyes still burned — gold and sapphire, without pupils — but they were locked on Elle now.
She wasn't touching the shield anymore.
She stood eerily still.
And something was moving through her. Not magic as they knew it. Older. Wilder. Forgotten.
A pulse rippled outward from her chest like a shockwave — not violent, not loud — but every golden shield flickered for a moment.
Fin felt it before he could name it. Elle's energy, seeping past the protective field around her. He hadn't meant to create a shield. He didn't even know how. It had just happened—his body reacting on instinct, throwing something up around her like muscle memory from a life he hadn't lived. But now that energy—hers—was leaking through it.
She was stuck.
But whatever was inside her… wasn't.
It pulsed outward in slow, deliberate waves. Slipping between the seams of his barrier. Not breaking it. Evading it. Like it knew more about his own power than he did.
He felt it cracking. Felt it slipping. And he knew—somehow, without anyone telling him—that if she did break through, if that shield failed, the dark magic surrounding Cael would notice her. It would eat her alive.
He opened his mouth, heart hammering, ready to yell—Stop. Don't. Cael wouldn't want—
Then it hit.
A jolt, sharp and electric, ran through his spine. He and Jax both stiffened—struck by the same sensation at the same time. Their entire bodies hummed.
Not magic. Not pain. Something else.
Fin blinked, breath caught.
He looked down, unsure what had hit him.
Then his gaze snapped up again—just in time to see the blur.
Nova.
She moved at alpha speed, the only people that even knew she could move that quickly were Fin, Jax, and Cael who was unconscious.
Only a blue cloak flared behind her, boots thudding silently against the stone, her pajama set clinging to her like second skin—silk camisole and shorts, scandalously short, the hem catching cold wind. Her legs and arms bare. Throat exposed. No protection. No fear.
It was freezing outside. And she had been unconscious for six hours. She should've been in bed. She hadn't stirred in hours. The last time he saw her, she was unconscious, limp, barely breathing. But here she was—racing forward like the air belonged to her, like nothing could touch her.
Like fire through dry brush.
Everyone froze, stunned silent, staring like she'd just returned from the grave.
And then—Elle's eyes met hers.
Whatever passed between them wasn't spoken. Didn't need to be. It was carved across Nova's face, written in the way she didn't hesitate.
She was here for her friend. And nothing was going to stop her.
And Elle looked back, tears still falling down her face.
Fin's power surged again, without thought or effort. His body responded for him, another shield rose around Nova, a protective instinct he couldn't control.
But as fast as it came, she waved it away. Just a flick of her hand, effortless and final. He felt it vanish. Like it had never existed.
Her eyes were glowing—bright, unnatural green. No pupils. No silver. Just that same blinding, emerald flame that now burned in Elle's. The moment Nova stepped into the circle, Elias's voice broke the silence.
"What's wrong with her?" he asked, eyes locked on her face like he couldn't quite make sense of what he was seeing.
Nova didn't answer or look at him. With a flick of her hand, a portal tore open in the air beside her. Large. Wide enough for two of Aeron's portals side by side. The space rippled at the edges, bending with the force of her will.
On the other side, not even a foot away, sat a hot spring—steam rising, water crystal clear.
And just as she opened it, the black magic—the same twisted smoke that Jax's sapphire power had been destroying—turned. It shot toward her, fast, hungry, as if it could sense the shift.
Jax and Fin tensed immediately, instincts kicking in. But nothing happened. Their magic didn't react. Not like it always did. It didn't move to shield her. It didn't move at all.
Both stared, equally stunned. It had always just... knew. Responded. Like a reflex.
But now?
She lifted her hand again and flicked the black magic away like it was a gnat. An inconvenience. Her green glow pulsed—no longer confined to her eyes, now leaking out of her skin like mist. Elle's eyes flashed in sync, glowing brighter as she watched, transfixed.
Something ancient was passing between them. And no one else understood it.
Fin tried again. His body responded first—focusing, channeling that strange energy he didn't understand but was starting to feel. He visualized the shield. Willed it into shape around her. For a second, it worked. It flickered to life—just a shimmer, a suggestion of gold forming around her like a heartbeat.
Almost.
But no cigar.
She flicked her fingers, and the shield vanished. Dismissed like an itch. Like it didn't apply to her if she didn't want it to. Not resisted. Not broken. Just… denied.
Fin froze, the energy falling dead in his hands. He stared, chest tight with the cold realization that he had no idea how this worked. He shook his head, muttering something under his breath, confused and breathless.
Then Jax tried. No hesitation. He threw a sapphire barrier around her—a full bubble. Something he had never tried before outside of the times he was inside the bubble with her. The sapphire bubble snapped into place, light bending around her, crisp and solid.
And she flicked that away too.
Gone. Like it was never there. Like his power was just another bug buzzing near her ear.
How was it not working on her?
That question hung, silent and sharp, in the space between Fin's furrowed brow and Jax's clenched jaw. Their powers had always reacted, always responded—especially to danger. Especially to her.