Page 219 of Tempest of Wrath and Vengeance

“Tristyn will be here any minute,” she cut in.

He nodded, and gods, even that small action hurt.

They’d sent a message to the male a week ago, asking him to be on standby for this. It was the only way he’d let Katya stay in the room when he finally transitioned from a Legacy to a Night Child.

As though he’d heard his name, the male walked into the room, features grim.

“Axel. Kat,” he greeted. Placing a small bag on a table, he shucked off his leather jacket and tossed it across a chair. “Cienna sent supplies. Just in case.”

“Where is she?” Axel rasped.

“She is tending to other matters at the moment,” he answered. “She will come if we call, but she doesn’t think she’ll be needed.”

Axel rolled his eyes, not wanting to deal with her prophetic ways in this moment.

“Any news to report?” Axel asked.

Tristyn arched a brow. “That’s what you want to talk about right now?”

“Anything to keep my mind elsewhere,” Axel muttered.

Tristyn sighed. “Everything has been unusually quiet since the Sirana Gala. It has everyone on edge.”

Axel nodded, but that was about all he could do.

The male offered nothing else, instead turning to Kat. “Have you eaten today? I can hear your stomach and your heart rate.”

“I have,” she answered. “I don’t…feel right.”

Alarm spread through Axel at those words. “What? Why didn’t you say anything?”

She glanced at Tristyn before focusing on the bedding beneath them.

“You didn’t tell him,” Tristyn said.

“Tell me what?” Axel demanded.

“He doesn’t need to know. He’s dealing with enough,” Kat cut in.

“That’s not how this works, kitten,” Axel said, shaking his head and grimacing. All he could feel were the dregs of his power. Every instinct in him was telling him to fill those reserves, to make sure he wasn’t defenseless, to take back his power. It was making it hard to focus on anything else with the familiar mania creeping closer, but he could sure as fuck focus on something that would affect Kat.

“Tell me,” he ordered Tristyn.

The male didn’t hesitate, despite Kat’s protests. “When you change fully, the bond between the two of you will die.”

“The twin flame bond,” Axel clarified.

Tristyn nodded. “She will feel it.”

Axel lurched up, ignoring the pain that assaulted him. “What does that mean?”

“She will feel the bond being ripped from her soul,” he answered. “You will too. It will make the change even more agonizing, but because she took the Mark to find you, it will be intensified for her.”

“Because that piece of her soul she offered up will die too,” Axel said in horrified understanding. He turned to Kat, taking her face in his trembling and clammy hands. “I am so sorry.”

It was all he could say. All he could do.

“It was worth it to find you,” she replied.

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