Chapter 3 The unbinding

For a single heartbeat, the world stood still.

Then the moon cracked open like an old scar-light spilling in strange, jagged streams across the garden. Mari barely managed to stay upright as the power surged through her, cold and sharp, like river water in her lungs. The sky above howled, and Corvin's runes shattered mid-air, scattering sparks across the stone.

Thorne moved first.

He pulled her toward the gate, ignoring the blood running from his shoulder. His grip was steel, but his voice stayed calm, low, meant for her alone. "We run now. Don't look back."

Mari didn't ask questions. Not now. Not with the wind spinning backwards, not with the garden walls bending like reeds. They bolted through the smoke and flickering spells, her bare feet slicing against gravel, breath tearing from her throat.

The manor loomed behind them, distant and dark, its windows glowing with eerie amber. Somewhere inside, Liora was screaming.

"We can't leave her," Mari gasped.

"We're not," Thorne said. "There's a way through the archives."

The archives-old tunnels, carved beneath the house during the first Blood Accord. Used for hiding relics. Or prisoners. Or both.

Thorne led her down the side of the estate, through a break in the hedges, past the old mausoleum no one spoke of anymore. The door was rusted shut, but he knew exactly where to press-his fingers on a glyph beneath the lion's eye.

The stone shifted. A cold breath of air hissed from the dark.

"In," he said.

They ducked through, silence pressing in like fog. The stairwell spiraled downward, narrow and wet, until it opened into a long corridor lined with dusty shelves and forgotten tomes. The magic in the walls was old. Sleeping. But restless now.

"Why would Corvin curse us?" Mari asked, her voice a thread.

"Because your father wanted you bound to the Highblood line," Thorne answered. "And I'm a threat to that."

"But you were eight."

"I was also bonded."

"That shouldn't be possible."

"It isn't. Not unless the moon marks you herself. And she only does that once in a generation."

Mari looked at him, everything shifting.

"So what does that make us?"

Thorne's eyes didn't leave hers. "Chosen. Cursed. Depends on who you ask."

A crash echoed from somewhere above them. The Tribunal had breached the manor.

"How do we find Liora?" she asked.

"There's a door in the northern tunnel-one they think no one remembers. It leads straight beneath the Temple of Binding."

"Convenient."

He smirked. "I lived here too, once."

The smirk faded quickly.

The corridor ended in a low archway, half-blocked by fallen stones. Thorne dug through them with gritted teeth, the injury on his shoulder leaking more blood with every movement. Mari reached forward to help, but he shook his head.

"You should conserve your strength."

"I'm not fragile."

"No," he murmured. "You're fire with skin."

She looked away before he could see the color in her face. "Fine. But we're getting that shoulder wrapped when this is over."

His smile this time was softer.

They slipped into the next tunnel. The air grew colder, heavier. The walls here weren't made of stone-they were carved bone, packed tightly and lined with ancient sigils. Mari flinched as one pulsed when she passed.

"Old blood magic," Thorne muttered. "Stay close."

"How do you know all this?"

"I lived with it," he said. "Studied it. I had to. They made me believe I was a weapon. I figured I'd better learn how I was made."

Her chest tightened. "You're not a weapon."

"I was marked for destruction before I ever touched a blade."

"No one should decide who you are except you."

He paused. Looked at her.

And something passed between them-heavy, quiet, true.

Then a scream cut the silence.

Liora.

Mari sprinted forward.

The corridor twisted, then opened into a stone chamber beneath the temple. Candles floated mid-air, their flames blue and flickering, revealing the binding circle etched into the floor. Liora knelt inside it, arms bound in silver, mouth covered in ashcloth.

Corvin stood at the edge of the circle with two Tribunal enforcers, their robes ink-black and humming with sigil magic.

"You think we didn't prepare for this?" Corvin sneered. "You think we didn't expect her bond would try to awaken?"

Mari didn't hesitate.

She stepped into the light, raising the ribbon between her fingers like a blade. "She's not the one bound anymore."

Corvin's eyes narrowed. "You don't know what you're doing."

"She does," Thorne said, stepping beside her. "And so do I."

"You're wounded," Corvin hissed. "And untrained."

"Still breathing, though."

The enforcers advanced.

Mari held out the ribbon-and this time, it glowed gold.

Not moonlight.

Sunfire.

It seared the circle clean through.

The ashcloth on Liora's mouth fell. Her head snapped up, eyes wide. "The seal is breaking!"

Corvin lunged forward.

Thorne blocked him.

The collision cracked through the room, shaking the bone-walls. Thorne grabbed Corvin's collar and threw him back-but the effort sent him staggering. His knees buckled. Blood soaked his shirt now.

Mari ran to Liora, ripping off the remaining bindings. "Can you walk?"

"Yes," Liora breathed. "But Mari-your time's running out."

"What do you mean?"

"You were marked once as a child. The seal suppressed it. But now that it's broken, the bond will complete itself."

"I don't understand."

"You'll feel it," Liora whispered. "Every cell in your body pulling toward him. You'll ache when he's too far. Burn when he's close."

Mari's hands shook. "What happens when it completes?"

Liora hesitated.

Then: "Nothing can break it."

Corvin roared behind them.

"You'll damn us all!" he bellowed. "She belongs to Kael! This was already decided!"

Mari stood slowly. "Not anymore."

"You'd destroy your house for a rogue? For a mistake?"

"I'd destroy a thousand houses before I let you cage me again."

Corvin raised his hands to cast-but Liora flung a binding spell at him, knocking him back into the stone. The enforcers faltered.

Mari grabbed Thorne, slinging his arm over her shoulder. "We need to move. Now."

They escaped through the broken ritual gate, Liora behind them, her steps light but swift. The temple shuddered as the old magic collapsed around them, stone breaking, symbols burning out of the walls.

Outside, dawn was just beginning to bleed across the trees.

Thorne coughed as they reached the edge of the forest, his skin pale, eyes glazed. Mari dragged him beneath a fallen arch. "You have to stay awake."

"I'm trying," he rasped.

She tore a strip from her dress and pressed it to his wound. "You're an idiot."

He smiled faintly. "But yours."

She froze.

The words landed differently now. They landed right.

"Thorne," she whispered. "Do you feel it?"

He didn't answer.

He winced.

And then he reached for her-hands shaking-grasping her wrist.

"You're burning," he whispered.

"So are you."

And then-it hit.

The full force of the bond.

The final seal broken.

It flooded through her, a wave of heat and ice and blinding clarity. Every part of her snapped into place. Her ribs ached like they'd been cracked and rebuilt. Her pulse stuttered. Her blood sang.

And Thorne-

He arched, gasping. His eyes blew wide, glowing briefly with moonlight, veins flashing silver before fading.

They were no longer two people.

They were threaded.

Bound.

Whole.

"I feel you," Mari breathed, her voice breaking.

"So do I," he whispered.

A shadow passed overhead.

Liora cursed. "We need cover. They'll come for you both now. The Tribunal won't stop until they break the bond-or break you."

Mari looked down at Thorne.

His hand still clasped hers.

"I won't let them have us," she said.

"I know."

Liora touched her shoulder. "We head north. Through the Shadow Vale. I know a place we can hide. But we'll need help. Allies."

"Who?"

"The broken ones. The exiled. The ones who remember the old ways."

Mari looked toward the mountains, toward the pale light rising beyond the trees.

"I'm not hiding," she said softly.

"Then what are you doing?"

"I'm fighting."

And as the first rays of sun struck the treetops, Mari Wynter-marked by moon and fire, chosen by fate and curse alike-took her first step toward war.