In the library, Auren's hand shattered a glass.
The sound rang sharp in the vast room as red liquid spilled across ancient pages, he didn't move, he stared at his palm as the glass fragments embedded themselves into skin that healed too slowly tonight.
"She is in pain" he murmured.
Asric, seated across the long table, didn't look up. "Of course she is."
Auren clenched his fist, the pull in his chest tightening painfully. It wasn't hunger. It wasn't desire.
It was recognition.
"She shouldn't feel this yet," Auren said.
"She shouldn't feel you yet," Asric corrected. "But blood doesn't wait for permission."
Auren turned away, pacing between towering shelves. "I followed the rules, I stayed away when the pull started"
"And she's still connected to you," Asric said calmly. "That was always the risk."
Asric finally looked up. "You knew the price."
"I knew my price," Auren snapped. "Not hers."
Silence settled.
"She's angry," Asric added. "That's good. Anger keeps her grounded."
"And when the anger turns into questions?" auren said with concern.
Asric's mouth curved slightly. "Then you'd better be ready to answer them."
Auren closed his eyes, he could feel her standing still, fighting the pull, furious at an absence she couldn't name.
"She'll hate me," he said quietly.
Asric leaned back. "No. She'll hate the lie."
"When she remembers," he said at last, "she'll remember why she chose you."
The bond surged suddenly sharp, bright, undeniable, Auren staggered, bracing himself against the shelf, across stone and silence, blood answered blood, neither of them knew it yet but the bond wasn't forming.
It was remembering.
The fire in the library burned low, its light flickering across stone and old paper.
Auren stood beside the long table, one hand resting on the cold surface, his gaze fixed somewhere beyond the walls. Asric lingered near the shelves, posture loose, eyes alert, listening more than watching.
"They didn't close the borders because of politics," Asric said at last. "Politics was just the excuse."
Auren nodded once.
"Safety was the reason."
Asric pushed away from the shelves and stepped closer. Whatever safety once existed was gone. The world no longer pretended otherwise.
Auren knew it as well. What others called freedom had become chaos.....unchecked, loud, and deadly. The old vampire codes had collapsed. Blood was taken openly now. Humans were turned without consent, without record, without consequence.
Too many young bloods ruled by hunger. Too little discipline to restrain them.
And humans paid the price.
Villages emptied overnight. People vanished without explanation. Fear spread faster than truth ever could.
The wolves only worsened it. They crossed borders as if laws were meaningless, attacked vampire holdings, seized land without negotiation, then hid behind instinct as justification. Auren had no patience left for that excuse.
The witches were no better. They chose sides without care, aligning with humans against wolves, blind to the fractures they were creating. Every alliance broke something else. Every choice pushed the world further from balance.
There were no rules anymore. No respect for treaties. No regard for boundaries. No fear of consequences.
That was why the four territories had closed...not out of isolation, but survival. Open borders had failed. They allowed movement without responsibility, power without accountability.
Now the rule was simple.
Cross a closed border, and whatever followed was your burden alone. No protection. No appeal. No intervention. Death, imprisonment, disappearance....each fate belonged entirely to the one who invited it.
Everyone had already turned against Auren for it. That no longer mattered.
He was not trying to end the chaos.
He was containing it.
Holding it in place until the world remembered why rules existed at all.
And if it refused to remember...
It would learn.
He paused, his expression tightening...not with anger, but suspicion.
"And there's something else," he added. "This didn't happen naturally. These 'accidents' are too recent. Too close together."
Asric's smile faded.
"We were stable," Auren continued. "Then something shifted. Quietly. Suddenly."
He looked back into the fire.
"And whatever touched the world first… is still out there."
Evryn woke up with a decision already made...
Not a calm one.
Not a wise one.
A necessary one.
Her eyes opened to the same stone ceiling, a cold moonlight creeping along its surface, but something in her had shifted during sleep. The anger was still there…but sharper now, focused, no longer scattered.
She sat up slowly , the pull was stronger , not painful , not demanding but present....
"He's there," she whispered.
Not a question.
She swung her legs off the bed and stood and went to the bath cleaning her self from the mud and the dirt of the forest , For a moment, she hesitated, staring at the door at the rules she hadn't agreed to, the boundaries drawn without her consent.
Then she straightened.
"I won't be kept in a room like a secret," she said quietly.
The door opened easily..... too easily... the corridor beyond stretched and dim. evryn walked she didn't rush not hide....every step echoed softly, her senses mapping the space around her without effort. She passed closed doors, wide staircases, balconies that overlooked inner courtyards drowned in darkness.
And through it all, the pull guided her.
Down one corridor.
Past a spiral stair.
Through an archway carved with ancient symbols warning enter with purpose.
The library doors stood at the end of the hall, Massive. Black wood reinforced with iron.
Whatever waited on the other side had already changed her life....
She pushed.
The doors opened silently.
The library was large, quiet room filled with tall bookshelves made of dark wood. They reach from the floor to the ceiling and are full of old books, scrolls, and new volumes. Soft light enters through big windows, and golden lamps glow at night.
In the center, there are long table, comfortable chairs, and small lamps for reading. A carpet covers the floor, making footsteps almost silent. At the back, a spiral staircase leads to a second level with more shelves and a balcony. The air smells like old paper and wood. The room feels calm, safe, and perfect for reading or discovering secrets.
Two figures stood near the center, and she already knows who is the one the pull wants.