Elara's POV
I couldn't breathe.
"ASH!" I screamed into the empty forest, spinning in circles. "Where are you? ASH!"
Through our bond, I felt his panic—raw and desperate. He was searching for me too, but we were separated by something more than distance. Something that felt like a wall between dimensions.
"He cannot hear you here," the silver-haired woman's voice came from everywhere and nowhere.
I whirled around. She stood beneath an ancient tree, looking amused.
"Send me back," I demanded. "Right now."
"So you can run from more enforcers? Hide in your little bookshop while your familiar tears himself apart trying to protect you?" She tilted her head. "That seems productive."
"Who are you?"
"The Oracle. Though names matter little." She gestured at the forest around us. "Welcome to the Between—where wild magic still runs free, untouched by the Council's restrictions."
Wild magic. I could feel it humming in my bones, calling to something deep inside me.
"I don't care about magic anymore," I said. "I just want to go back to Ash."
"Do you?" The Oracle stepped closer. "Because you've been pushing him away for six months. Treating him like a problem instead of a gift."
My face flushed. "That's not—"
"You're terrified of what he's become. What you feel for him." Her galaxy eyes seemed to see right through me. "But fear won't save you from what's coming."
"What's coming?"
"The same people who stole your magic are hunting you again. Caspian knows you're alive. Knows about Ash's transformation. And he wants both of you—dead or captured, he doesn't particularly care which."
My stomach dropped. "How do you know that?"
"I see all timelines, little witch. Past, present, future—they're all the same to me." She touched my shoulder, and suddenly images flooded my mind:
Caspian in a dark chamber, studying magical texts about familiar bonds.
Vivienne arguing with him, jealousy twisting her face.
My father, looking older and haunted, staring at a portrait of my mother.
And Ash—Ash fighting enforcers, his eyes blazing gold, shadows exploding from his body in ways that should be impossible.
I gasped as the visions faded. "Why are you showing me this?"
"Because you need to understand what your familiar truly is." The Oracle circled me slowly. "Do you know why familiars are bound in animal form? Why the Council made transformation forbidden?"
"To... control power?"
"Partially. But the real reason?" She smiled. "Because a familiar who transforms out of love becomes something the Council fears more than anything—a true equal. A partner who amplifies their witch's power a thousand-fold."
My heart pounded. "Ash transformed to save me from demons. Not because of—"
"Didn't he?" The Oracle's voice was soft. "He's been in love with you since you were children. Every year, that love grew stronger. When the demons attacked, his love shattered the bonds that kept him trapped. He didn't just transform to save you, Elara. He transformed because he loves you."
The words hit me like a physical blow.
"No," I whispered. "Familiars don't—they can't—"
"They can. They always could. The Council just convinced everyone otherwise." She grabbed my hand. "Your magic wasn't stolen two years ago. It was locked away by the betrayal ritual. And the only key to unlocking it is accepting a bond deeper than any witch has dared—"
"Stop." I pulled my hand free. "Even if that's true, familiar-human bonds are punishable by death. Loving Ash would doom us both."
"And denying him will kill you anyway." The Oracle's expression turned serious. "Caspian is coming. Tonight. He's tracked Ash's magical signature, and he's bringing a dozen enforcers. Without your magic, without accepting what Ash truly is, you'll both die."
Terror clawed at my throat. "Then teach me to unlock my magic. Show me how—"
"It's not something I can teach. It's something you must choose." She stepped back, and the forest began to fade. "The question is: are you brave enough to love someone the world calls forbidden?"
"Wait!" I reached for her, but she was dissolving like mist. "How do I get back to him?"
"You already are."
The forest vanished.
I stumbled, catching myself on—the bookshop counter.
I was back. In the real world. How long had I been gone?
"Elara!" Ash burst through the back door, and relief flooded his face when he saw me. Then anger replaced it. "Where were you? You disappeared right in front of me! I thought—" His voice cracked. "I thought I lost you."
The defeated enforcers were gone. The shop was empty.
"How long was I missing?" I asked.
"Three seconds." He ran his hands through his hair, and I noticed they were shaking. "But in those three seconds, I felt you so far away I couldn't—" He stopped, jaw clenched.
Three seconds there. But I'd been with the Oracle for at least ten minutes.
Time worked differently in the Between.
"We need to leave," Ash said. "More will come. We should—"
He froze mid-sentence. His eyes flashed gold, and his head snapped toward the door like a wolf scenting prey.
"What is it?" I whispered.
"They're already here." His voice dropped to a growl. "Lots of them. Surrounding the building."
Through the shop window, I saw figures moving in the darkness outside. Too many to count.
And standing in front of them, illuminated by streetlights, was a face I'd hoped to never see again.
Caspian.
He smiled when he saw me watching. Then he raised his hand, and the windows exploded inward with a crash of breaking glass.
Ash yanked me behind him as enforcers poured through every entrance.
"Hello, Elara," Caspian called over the chaos. "Did you miss me?"
Ash's body began to change—shadows erupting, his form shifting between human and wolf. But there were too many enforcers. Even with his impossible power, we were outnumbered.
"I'll hold them off," Ash said, not looking at me. "You run."
"I'm not leaving you—"
"ELARA, RUN!"
But I couldn't. Because as I watched Ash prepare to fight a battle he couldn't win, the Oracle's words echoed in my mind:
The only key is accepting a bond deeper than any witch has dared.
And I realized with crystal clarity what I had to do.
What I'd been too scared to do for six months.
I grabbed Ash's arm, spinning him to face me.
"Elara, what are you—"
I kissed him.
Not a soft kiss. Not tentative. This was desperation and truth and two years of denial shattering all at once.
Ash went rigid with shock. Then his arms came around me like he'd been waiting his whole life for this moment.
And the magic that exploded from our kiss didn't come from me.
It came from our bond.
Golden light erupted from where we touched, expanding outward in a shockwave that threw every enforcer backward. The entire bookshop shook. Books flew off shelves. The ground cracked beneath our feet.
And deep inside me, where my magic had been locked away for two years, something stirred.
Something woke up.
I pulled back from the kiss, gasping. Ash stared at me with wide, golden eyes.
"What did you just—" he started.
Then his expression changed to horror as he looked past me.
I turned.
Caspian stood in the doorway, completely unaffected by the magical shockwave. Dark energy swirled around him, and his smile was victorious.
"Perfect," he said. "I was hoping you'd do that."
He raised both hands, and I saw the magical symbols tattooed across his palms—the same symbols from the betrayal ritual two years ago.
"Did you really think I'd let you unlock your magic and keep it?" He laughed. "That kiss just activated the final part of the ritual. Your power is waking up, yes. But the moment it fully manifests—"
He snapped his fingers.
"—it becomes mine."
The world tilted.
Because I felt it happening. Felt my magic stirring, growing, rising toward the surface.
And felt the invisible chains wrapping around it, ready to pull it straight into Caspian the moment it emerged.
I'd just made the biggest mistake of my life.
I'd just given him exactly what he wanted.