The lock shattered.
Metal screamed as the door buckled inward, slamming against the concrete wall hard enough to shake dust from the ceiling. Elira screamed and stumbled back, her heel catching on the uneven floor.
Three figures poured in.
Black coats. Covered faces. Movements too precise to belong to ordinary men.
"Vessel secured," one of them said, voice flat, wrong in the air.
Elira's heart slammed. She turned to run.
Her body did not obey.
Something seized her from the inside, sharp and absolute, like a hand closing around her spine. Her muscles went rigid. Her breath caught halfway in.
No, Kael said calmly. Stand still.
Her legs locked.
Panic burst through her chest. "Stop!"
Her mouth moved. Her body didn't.
The hunters advanced, spreading out with practiced ease. One raised a weapon etched with symbols that made Elira's vision blur when she looked too long.
"Alive," another said. "The council wants her intact."
A pulse of cold amusement slid through Elira's veins.
They always say that, Kael murmured.
Her arm lifted.
Not by her will.
Her fingers curled, unfamiliar tension snapping through tendons she hadn't commanded in years. Her posture changed subtly, her shoulders rolling back, her balance shifting into something grounded and lethal.
Elira felt it all.
Every movement.
Every theft.
"What are you doing?" she cried inside her own head.
Borrowing, Kael replied. You are inefficient when afraid.
The nearest hunter lunged.
Elira's body moved.
She ducked, faster than she thought possible, twisting aside as the blade hissed past where her throat had been a heartbeat earlier. Her hand slammed into the attacker's wrist with bone-cracking force.
The man screamed.
Elira screamed too, inside, as pain echoed up her arm, not enough to stop her, but enough to remind her this was still her body breaking things.
She staggered back, gasping.
The second hunter came from her blind side.
Kael pivoted her smoothly, guiding her like a weapon that had been waiting centuries to be held again. Her foot lashed out, catching the man's knee at precisely the wrong angle.
There was a sickening pop.
The hunter collapsed.
Elira retched.
Focus, Kael said. There are more.
Her vision tunneled. The room smelled like blood and iron and fear.
The third hunter hesitated.
He raised his hand, fingers spreading, muttering words that scraped against Elira's skull. The air thickened, pressing in on her chest.
Pain flared behind her eyes.
Elira cried out, clutching her head.
Kael surged forward.
The pressure vanished.
Her body straightened, spine snapping into alignment as heat flooded her limbs. Her blood burned, not painful, but alive, roaring like something had finally remembered what it was meant to do.
She moved again.
This time, Kael didn't bother with subtlety.
Her hand closed around the hunter's throat.
Lifted.
The man choked, boots scraping uselessly against the floor.
Elira felt the vibration of his pulse under her palm. Felt how easily it could be stopped.
"No," she whispered aloud. "Don't—"
He would kill you without asking, Kael said, voice low, almost bored. Learn the difference between mercy and waste.
Her fingers tightened.
The hunter's struggles weakened.
Elira's vision swam. Her chest ached like it was splitting open.
Then Kael released him.
The body hit the floor in a boneless heap, unconscious but breathing.
Silence crashed down.
Elira collapsed to her knees, shaking violently. Her hands felt wrong. Too strong. Too steady.
She gagged, dry heaving, tears streaking down her face.
"That wasn't me," she sobbed. "That wasn't—"
It was your body, Kael corrected. And my will.
She pressed her palms to the concrete, grounding herself in the cold. Her wrist throbbed, the cut reopening slightly, warm blood slicking her skin.
The sight made Kael go still.
Not alarmed.
Attentive.
You feel it now, he said. The way the bond responds. Fear sharpens it. Blood feeds it.
Elira's stomach dropped. "Feeds what?"
Kael didn't answer immediately.
Footsteps echoed faintly in the distance. More voices. More movement.
We do not have time for comfort, he said—only understanding.
Her heart hammered. "They're coming back."
Yes. A pause. But not like these.
She pushed herself to her feet, swaying. "You said you were trapped too."
A faint smile edged his voice.
I was.
Her breath caught. "Was?"
The bond tightened.
Not painfully.
Intimately.
You are bleeding, Elira Vale, Kael said. And I am no longer weak.
The realization hit her like a bucket of ice water.
"You lied to me," she whispered.
I omitted, he replied calmly. There is a difference.
The distant voices grew louder.
Kael's presence expanded inside her, heavy and assured, settling deeper into her bones like something claiming its seat.
You survived because I allowed it, he said. You will continue to survive because you obey.
Elira's hands trembled.
"And if I don't?"
Silence.
Then Kael spoke, softer than before.
Then the bond will take what it needs without asking.
The door at the far end of the corridor burst open.
Light flooded in.
Elira lifted her head, terror and fury colliding in her chest.
And inside her, Kael Thorn prepared to take more.