Caspian's POV
We need to talk about breaking the bond.
Elara looks at me like I just slapped her. We're in my office the next morning, surrounded by files on Vivienne, and those words just came out wrong.
What? Her voice is ice.
Not like that. I mean I run my hand through my hair, frustrated. If the bond makes us her weapon, maybe we should break it before it becomes permanent. While we still can.
Marcus said there's no way to break a Blood Bond.
Marcus has been imprisoned for nine years. Maybe he doesn't know everything. I pull up research on my computer. I've been looking into it all night. There are legends. Stories about mages who broke bonds by
By dying, Elara finishes. The only way to break a Blood Bond is if both people die and get resurrected within the same minute. Which is impossible.
Almost impossible.
Caspian, no. She stands, starts pacing. The bond pulls tight between us, humming with anxiety. We're not dying to escape Vivienne. We're beating her. There has to be another way.
What if there isn't?
Then we figure one out! She whirls on me. You want to know what I think. I think you're scared. The bond is getting stronger, and you're scared of being connected to me forever.
She's not wrong. But not for the reasons she thinks.
I'm scared of what we could become, I admit. Together, we're powerful enough to do terrible things. What if she finds a way to control us? What if we can't stop ourselves?
Then we make sure she never gets the chance. Elara's eyes flash. We find her first. We end this.
Before I can respond, Adrian bursts through the door.
Boss, we have a problem.
What now?
Vivienne just issued a public statement. She's claiming you kidnapped six children from a legitimate medical facility. Says you're holding them hostage. Adrian shows us his tablet. News articles are already spreading. She's positioned herself as the victim trying to rescue them.
My stomach drops. She's turning this around on us.
It gets worse. She filed an emergency petition with the council. They're sending investigators here in two hours to check on the kids. Adrian's face is grim. If the kids are too traumatized to speak clearly, if they can't corroborate our story
The council will take them back to Vivienne, Elara finishes, horror in her voice. And us to prison.
Through the bond, I feel her panic rising. Feel my own matching it.
Get the medical team, I order. Document every injury, every magical trace of torture. And get Marcuse's the oldest, the most coherent. We need his testimony rock solid.
Adrian nods and leaves.
Elara sinks into a chair. She planned this too. Every move. She knew we'd save them. Knew we'd bring them here. Now she's using it against us.
She's good, I admit. But we're better.
Are we? She looks up at me. Because it feels like she's always three steps ahead.
I crouch down in front of her chair, take her hands. Through the bond, I push calm, confidence, determination.
We have something she doesn't, I say.
What?
Each other.
The words hang between us. True in ways I didn't expect when I said them.
Elara's eyes soften slightly. When did you start believing that?
When I saw you absorb six different powers to save kids you didn't even know. When you refused to leave Marcus behind. When you I stop. Too honest. Too much.
But through the bond, she feels it anyway. The growing attachment. The trust. The fear of losing her.
Caspian, she whispers.
My phone rings. Saved by technology.
It's an unknown number. I almost don't answer, but something makes me pick up.
Mr. Noir. Vivienne's voice purrs through the speaker. I hope you're ready for visitors.
I put it on speaker. What do you want?
What I've always wanted. Power. Control. A world that bends to my will. She laughs. And you two are going to give it to me.
Never, Elara spits.
Oh, sweetie. You won't have a choice. See, I've been studying Blood Bonds for thirty years. Longer than you've been alive. I know things about them that no one else does. Vivienne's voice drops, intimate and threatening. For example, did you know that on the ninth day of bonding, there's a window? A moment where the bond opens completely. No walls, no barriers. Your minds, your souls, everything exposed.
Ice fills my veins. What are you talking about?
Tomorrow is your ninth day. And when that window opens, I'll be waiting. I have a spell, you see. One that will let me step inside your bond. Control it. Control you. She pauses. Viktor helped me design it before I killed him. Ironic, really.
Elara grabs my arm. Through the bond, her terror mirrors mine.
You can't I start.
I can. I will. And the best part? You'll still be conscious. Still aware. You'll just be puppets, watching yourselves destroy everything and everyone you care about. Vivienne's smile comes through the phone. Starting with those six children. You'll kill them with your own hands while I watch.
We'll stop you, Elara says, but her voice shakes.
How? You can't run you're bonded. Can't hide I can track you anywhere. Can't break the bond it's impossible. Vivienne laughs. You're trapped, darlings. You have been since the moment you met. Every choice, every move, all leading to tomorrow.
The line goes dead.
Silence fills the office. Heavy. Suffocating.
She's bluffing, I say, but I don't believe it.
What if she's not? Elara's hands are shaking. What if tomorrow we become her weapons and we can't stop it?
My mind races. Nine days. We knew about the ten-day countdown, but this vulnerability window on day nine why didn't the research mention it?
Unless it's forbidden knowledge. The kind of thing the council erased from records.
We need help, I say. Someone who knows more about Blood Bonds than the council records show.
Who?
I know someone. A magical historian. She's ancient, half-crazy, lives like a hermit. But she knows things. I grab my coat. We need to go now.
The council investigators
Adrian can handle them. We can't fight Vivienne if we don't understand what we're fighting.
We're halfway to the door when Marcus appears, looking better but still weak.
Ellie, wait. I remembered something. About what Vivienne said in the basement. About her weapon. He looks between us. She kept talking to someone. Not on a phone. Like... magically. Someone she called 'the Collector.'
The Collector? I repeat.
She said 'the Collector wants them ready for the ninth day.' I didn't understand then, but now Marcus's eyes widen. What if Vivienne isn't working alone? What if there's someone worse?
Elara goes pale. Someone who collects Blood Bonds. Uses them for something.
But we're the only bonded pair, I say.
That we know of, Marcus corrects. What if there are others? What if Vivienne has been creating bonds for years? Six kids, six different bloodlines what if she was planning to bond them all?
The implications crash over me like a wave.
A network of controlled bonds, I breathe. All connected. All powerful. All under one person's control.
An army, Elara whispers.
My phone buzzes. Text from Adrian:
Boss, problem. The other five kids just vanished. Disappeared from their rooms. No trace. No sign of struggle. Like they were never here.
Through the bond, I feel Elara's horror.
She took them back, she says. While we were distracted.
Another text:
Council is here early. They found the empty rooms. They're asking questions. Lots of questions.
We're out of time.
Vivienne has the kids. The council thinks we're lying. Tomorrow the bond opens and we become weapons.
And somewhere out there, someone called the Collector is waiting.
We run, Elara says suddenly. We get to your historian, learn how to fight this, and we come back ready.
The council will call it fleeing. They'll hunt us.
Let them. Her jaw sets. I didn't survive nine years of hell to become a puppet now.
Through the bond, I feel her determination. Her fire. Her absolute refusal to give up.
It's contagious.
Okay, I agree. We run. But Marcus comes with us.
Obviously.
We gather what we need weapons, supplies, the files on Vivienne. Marcus is weak but mobile.
As we head for the private elevator, Adrian intercepts us.
Boss, where are you going?
To end this. I clasp his shoulder. Tell the council whatever you need to. Buy us time.
How much time?
Twenty-four hours. Either we figure out how to beat her, or
I don't finish. Don't need to.
Twenty-four hours until the ninth day.
Twenty-four hours until Vivienne tries to turn us into weapons.
Twenty-four hours to save ourselves and stop whatever the Collector is planning.
As the elevator descends, Elara takes my hand.
Whatever happens tomorrow, she says quietly, I'm glad it's with you.
Through the bond, I feel the truth of it. Despite everything the hate, the revenge, the forced proximity something real has grown between us.
Same, I whisper back.
The elevator doors open to the garage.
And standing there, surrounded by armed guards, is someone I never expected.
A woman in her fifties, elegant and cold.
Caspian's mother.
Who's supposed to be dead?
Hello, son, she says with a smile that doesn't reach her eyes. We need to talk about your little bond problem. And about the family business you've been neglecting.
She looks at Elara.
Hello, dear. Your mother and I were such good friends. Before Viktor killed her, of course.
The world tilts sideways.
His mother is alive.
She knew Elara's mother.
And she just mentioned Viktor like he was a tool, not a threat.
Through the bond, I feel Caspian's shock. His confusion.
His growing realization that nothing absolutely nothing is what we thought it was.