Page 80 of Wolf of the Storm
I don't stop.
Finn moves beside me in his full dragon form. Scaled and massive, thirty feet of crimson power radiating magic that makes the air ripple.
Through our bond, Declan reaches for him.Together. The three of us. Dragon foundation, storm binding, and the unity that makes it unbreakable.
Declan directs storm magic through me, Finn provides the dragon-ancient foundation, and me serving as the living conduit that binds it all with the power of choice and unity. We reach for the failing seals.
The original magic is still there, woven generations ago by Finn's grandfather and the human woman who loved him enough to bleed for him. The seals weren't destroyed by Connor's ritual. Just damaged. Weakened. Made vulnerable.
But they can be repaired. Reinforced. Rebuilt.
Through me, Declan pours everything into those bindings. His storm magic weaves through Finn's dragon power, the two of them working in concert. Strengthen what's crumbling. Replace what's broken. The mate bond serves as the foundation. Proof that love and unity can endure, can grip against entropy and chaos and time itself.
Almost there,Declan gasps through our connection.Hold on, love. Just a little longer.
The seals blaze bright enough to rival the sun.
The Fomori shrieks again, thrashing, fighting. Reality warps around it as it attempts to resist, to maintain its grip on this world. For a moment, I think it might actually break free. Might tear through us all and emerge fully into this reality.
Then the pack magic surges. The brotherhood's trust endures. And the dragon power locks everything into place.
The entity that took six deaths to release, that required Connor's suicide and generations of planning, that needed the perfect convergence of bloodlines and sacrifice, begins to compress. To fold back into itself. The tear in reality starts closing, sealing the Fomori back into the darkness where it belongs.
I tasted freedom. You think these bindings will hold? Love fades. Unity crumbles. I need only wait.
"We can wait longer," Declan and I say simultaneously, our voices overlapping—his aloud at the convergence point, mine through blood-slicked lips in front of the entity.
With one final surge of unified power—Declan's storm magic, Finn's dragon foundation, the pack's unity, and thebrotherhood's hard-won trust all woven together through me—we reforge the seals.
New seals. Stronger. Built not just on one person's sacrifice but on the willing unity of an entire pack. Built by an Alpha who refused to give up, a mate who trusted him completely, and a dragon who remembered how it was done the first time.
The Fomori feeds on discord. These seals are woven from its opposite.
They'll hold forever.
The tear slams shut with a sound like thunder. Reality seals itself, and the corruption vanishes. The entity is gone, caged again, trapped behind bindings it can never break because it's incapable of understanding what they're made from.
Strong arms catch me before I hit the ground. Declan's arms, always Declan's. But he shouldn't be standing. He was at the convergence point, dying, bleeding out his life force.
Held on,he gasps against my hair, and through our bond I understand. The moment the seals locked into place, the moment the Fomori was caged, his power flooded back completely. It's his again. Wholly and permanently.Held on for you. Had to catch you.
Relief and love and absolute terror at how close we came to losing each other bleeds through our connection.
"I watched every step," he whispers, his whole body shaking as he carefully lowers us both to the ground. "Felt you dying through the bond. Fought to keep your mind whole while that thing tried to tear you apart. And I couldn't do anything except trust you. Trust us."
I want to say something reassuring. Something romantic. Something that conveys how much I love him, how his strength kept me standing, how his direction made it possible.
But through the fading connection, I feel him seeing what the Fomori did to me—the splits in my skin, the blood, the wayI'm barely breathing. His grief and rage spike, but then his arms tighten, protective. Determined to keep me together.
You kept me alive,I manage to send through the bond.Your will. Your strength. I would have shattered without you.
And I couldn't have reached the seals without you,he sends back fiercely.We did this. Both of us.
Just before consciousness slips away, I feel it across our link—something new woven into the seals. Not just power. Responsibility. Permanence.
We're bound to this now. Guardians. Forever.
I try to tell Declan, but darkness swallows the words. His heartbeat thuds against my ear, steady and alive.
