Page 63 of Bound to the Dorm Elf
It’s not just a shield—it’salive, flowing like liquid glass, warm as summer sunlight when the heat of it brushes my face. I feel it curl around me, enclosing me in safety that’s almost suffocating in its intensity. And I know—because I’ve watched him in enough fights—that this magic isn’t his weaponry. This is something else. Something older.
My breath stutters.
He’shealing me while I’m not even hurt.
The realization is disorienting—he’s burning through his strength to keep me safe, even as his father bears down on him.
Razarak’s face changes when the magic flares. His sneer falters, just for a second, like he’s caught off guard that his son would spend that kind of power on… me.
And in that heartbeat of hesitation, Rovax strikes.
The shield drops, the light folding back into his skin like water disappearing into sand, and he lunges forward. The sound of steel and magic colliding again is deafening, a single hard note that vibrates in the air. Runes flare brighter, muscles bunch, and then—impossibly—Rovax drives his father to his knees.
The campus quad goes still except for the ragged sound of their breathing. The scorched ground smolders, patches of grass still hissing with heat.
I expect him to finish it—to land the killing blow that’s been coiled in every movement since they started. Instead, he plants his blade against his father’s armored shoulder, leaning in close enough that the words are for him alone.
“I could end you,” he says, low and steady, voice like a blade sliding home. “But that’s not the victory I want.”
I can’t hear Razarak’s reply, but I see the way his jaw tightens, the flash of defiance in those ember-red eyes.
Rovax’s voice sharpens. “You will leave this world untouched. You will take your warriors, your poisons, and your petty ambitions back through whatever hole you crawled out of—and you will not return.”
It’s not a plea. It’s not even a threat.
It’s a command.
The air between them is thick with something I can’t name—power, blood, history—but I feel it settle, heavy and final. Razarak says nothing more. He rises with a predator’s grace, brushing dust from his armor like the duel was nothing, andturns toward the rippling tear still bleeding purple light above the grass.
One by one, the obsidian-armored soldiers follow him through.
And then the sky seals itself, the night suddenly too quiet, leaving only scorched earth and the distant hum of campus lights.
I don’t move until Rovax turns toward me, still breathing hard, his glamour creeping back into place like a mask settling on his features. His hands are empty now, but the look in his eyes… that’s still raw, still unguarded.
I want to ask him why he didn’t kill his father. I want to demand to know why he’d burn himself out shielding me instead of finishing the fight faster. But my throat is dry, my heart’s still racing, and all that comes out is a whisper.
“You didn’t have to?—”
“Yes,” he cuts in, voice low but absolute, “I did.”
My legs feel like they’re made of wet paper, but I’m moving before I even realize it — picking my way over the scorched grass, the air still heavy with ozone and burnt earth. Rovax is standing there, shoulders squared, eyes fixed on the place in the sky where the portal sealed shut, like if he His hands aren’t shaking, not quite, but there’s a tightness in the way he’s holding himself — too rigid, too still.
I remember what it cost him to keep that shield up around me, the way the runes burned under his skin.
I’m aboutto ask if he’s okay, but before I can get the words out, he turns.
The lookin his eyes is different — stripped down, bare, not the cool control he usually wears like armor. He crosses the
distance between us in three strides, and then his hands are on me — one cupping the back of my neck, the other pressing
against the small of my back.
The kiss hitslike the tail end of a lightning strike.
It’s not careful,not the kind of slow burn I’ve gotten used to with him. It’s urgent, like he’s afraid the ground might
give way beneath us if he stops. His mouth is hot, insistent, his breath harsh against my cheek. My fingers find the
