Ayra tried to rise from the glowing stone floor, but the bond tugged her chest, tight and insistent. Every movement she made caused a ripple of pain, not just in her own body, but across Alric's. He grunted softly as the pressure shifted, and for a brief moment, their eyes met, wide with surprise and irritation.
"This is… impossible," Ayra muttered, her fingers curling into the hem of her tunic. She could feel the heat of his presence like a second heartbeat pressing against her ribs. "Why does it feel like you're in me?"
Alric's jaw tightened. "Because I am. That is what the bond does. It links us, not just to feel, but to move, to exist. Every choice you make affects me, and vice versa."
Ayra shivered, pulling back instinctively. Pain flared, sharp and insistent, forcing her to lean against the cold stone. She hated the sensation, hated that it left her gasping and disoriented, hated the way it made her aware of him even when she wanted nothing more than to scream and run.
He studied her silently for a moment, his dark eyes unreadable. "Do not fight it. You cannot escape."
She swallowed hard. "Escape? I don't even know what this is. How can I stop it?"
Alric exhaled slowly. "You cannot stop it. You can only learn to control it. Or survive it."
Ayra glared, though the sharpness in her chest made it hard to hold her stance. "Survive it? You make it sound simple. It burns. It hurts. I can feel" She stopped, realizing that she was describing his pain, not her own. Her stomach twisted.
"You're noticing me," he said flatly. "It reacts to attention. To awareness. The moment you stop thinking about yourself and feel for me… it tightens."
Ayra blinked. "So I'm supposed to care about you now? Great. Just what I needed."
Alric's lips twitched, almost imperceptibly, as though he were fighting the corner of a smile or a sigh. "Care is not the word. Awareness. Control. Focus. Everything else will kill us both."
The bond hummed beneath them as if agreeing with his warning. Ayra could feel it thrumming in time with her pulse, a presence that was alive and impatient. She clenched her fists to steady herself, wishing it would vanish, wishing it had never chosen her.
"You've survived worse," Alric said, almost to himself. "And yet, you cannot understand how small this is compared to what is coming."
Ayra's stomach dropped. "What's coming?"
He didn't answer immediately. His eyes scanned the chamber, every muscle coiled like a spring. Then, finally, he said, "Someone is watching us. Someone who knows about the bond. They'll come for us soon, and they won't hesitate to kill either of us."
Ayra swallowed hard. Fear and anger twisted together inside her. "Kill us? Why?"
Alric's eyes narrowed. "Because bonds like this are rare, powerful. Dangerous. People want to control them. And the enemy who succeeds will hold more than land or armies they'll hold life itself."
She stepped back, shivering. "So… we're a target?"
"More than a target," he said. "We are prey. And yet, we are also the only ones who can survive this. That is the irony."
Ayra's head spun. Her life had always been about surviving, about doing what was needed to avoid death. Now, the stakes were different. She was no longer just a girl in a border village. She was the key to something bigger, something she could not yet comprehend and the weight of that knowledge pressed down on her shoulders like a mountain.
"Fine," she said finally, her voice firm despite the fear she felt. "Then we survive. Together."
Alric studied her for a long moment, then nodded once. "Do not mistake this for trust," he warned. "Trust comes later. Survival comes first."
Ayra wanted to argue, wanted to tell him she had never trusted anyone, especially someone like him. But the moment she opened her mouth, the bond pulsed violently across her chest. A sharp, insistent reminder that their fates were tied.
She swallowed, clenching her teeth. "Fine," she said again. "Survival first."
The hum of the magical symbols beneath them seemed to grow louder. Shadows shifted at the edges of the chamber, and the air grew heavy. Neither Ayra nor Alric moved closer to each other, but both were aware that the bond would force them together whether they liked it or not.
And far above, outside the walls, unseen eyes watched, calculating and patient.
The war had already found them. The bond had made them targets. And the night was far from over.
Ayra shivered, though not entirely from cold. Somehow, she knew that surviving this night would be only the beginning.
And the bond… the bond would make sure she could never escape Prince Alric.