Page 196 of Without a Trace
“I understand more than you think,” he said, voice low. “I tried to stop it. That’s why I made your mother hide you. Why I buried every record. You were never supposed to remember.”
“And yet here I am,” I said, laughing bitterly. “A little late for erasure.”
His expression didn’t shift. “They only bonded to you because of who you are.”
I felt like the floor might crack beneath me. “Then why didn’t they tell me?”
“Because they were afraid,” he said. “Because love is the most dangerous lie of all. They weren’t supposed to fall for you.”
I felt every word like glass under my skin. “But they did.”
He didn’t answer.
“And now I’m just supposed to pick a side?” I asked. “Play the game they built while I was kept in the dark?”
“No,” he said. “You’re not here to play the game. You’re here to end it.”
The fire behind him crackled louder. The air in the room pulsed.
“Trace is the Order’s crown,” he said. “Alden is their anchor. But you—” his eyes locked onto mine “—you’re the blade.”
A tremor rolled through my chest.
“You can sever them,” he said. “Or bind them forever. The Severance Knot isn’t just a myth. It’s a weapon. And right now, it’s you.”
My voice was quieter this time. Rough. “And if I don’t?”
He didn’t respond.
“If I don’t choose a side,” I pressed. “If I don’t sever the bond. If I don’t bind anything—what happens?”
His gaze flicked to the fire, jaw hardening. “Then the knot tightens.”
“What does that mean?” I demanded.
“It means you keep bleeding into each other. The bond doesn’t just disappear. It festers. It pulls. It consumes.”
I swallowed hard. “All of us?”
He nodded. “You. Trace. Alden. Eventually, it destroys what it can’t claim.”
My stomach twisted. “So I destroy them?”
“Or they destroy you,” he said. “That’s how it always ends when a Severance Knot is left to rot. It doesn’t break clean—it devours.”
I looked at him, barely breathing. “You’ve seen this happen before?”
He stepped forward. “No ones seen it, stories have been passed down. Warnings buried in pages no one was meant to read.” His eyes met mine, “A long time ago, it happened. And when she refused to choose, the bloodlines turned on each other. The girl was the first to fall.”
The fire hissed behind him like it knew the story too well.
My lips parted. “And you think I’m her? Reborn or something?”
“I think you’re the reckoning that story left behind.”
I hated how still the room became. Like the walls were waiting for me to explode. Like they wanted it.
I crossed my arms, even though I was shaking. “Then what happens if I do choose?”
