Pain exploded down my spine, my scream echoing across the chamber as silver light burst from my shoulder where his mark had once glowed.
My knees buckled. The cords went taut.
I felt him then—felt Kael’s presence rip away like a limb torn from my soul. The bond shrieked as it unraveled, threads snapping violently, leaving behind raw, bleeding emptiness.
I smelled blood.
Not mine.
His.
He staggered backward with a sharp grunt, clutching his chest as Lyra rushed to his side.
“Elira—stop this!” he barked hoarsely.
But I couldn’t stop.
The mark resisted, digging claws into every piece of me it had ever claimed. It showed me fragments of a life I had given freely—every compromise, every silence, every lie I’d swallowed to keep our pack whole.
And then—
It was gone.
The rune circle collapsed inward with a thunderous crack, and I fell forward onto the stone, gasping like I had been dragged from the depths of the Veil.
No bond.
No warmth.
Only hollow silence.
The High Priest raised his staff. “It is done. The Luna is unbound.”
Unbound.
Not free.
Kael did not come to me.