Page 84 of Claimed By Stone
The bond.
Still alive.
Still humming in my chest like a soft, unbroken chord. A tether across the distance. She was there.She was still there.
I closed my eyes and let that knowledge settle into my bones.
She was still mine.
The soft crunch of boots on stone pulled my attention. Khuldruk appeared outside the cell, face shadowed but eyes clear, watching me in silence.
He didn’t yell. Didn’t bark commands. He just sat, forearms resting on his knees as if we were two warriors taking a break between battles.
“Why, Thavros?” he finally asked. “Why would you risk everything—our magic, our people, yourself—for a chance?”
I looked up, meeting his gaze with calm I hadn’t expected to feel. “To save my mate,” I said. “To saveourpeople.”
His brow creased. The flicker of confusion warred with something softer, something like hope.
And I held on to that. Because I wasn’t wrong, and soon, he would see it too.
Khuldruk leaned forward, his arms resting on his knees. “But how do youknowit worked?” His voice wasn’t mocking. It was low, weighted with worry.
I met his eyes without hesitation. “The same way you know Callie is alive and well.”
His mouth opened, but no words came.
Because hedidknow. The same bond pulsed in his chest that did in mine. Unseen. Unprovable. Unshakable.
“You didn’t need proof,” I said softly. “You justfelther. That’s how I feel, Seraphina. I still feel her.”
Khuldruk’s shoulders slumped slightly. Not in defeat—but in understanding.
“I must go,” Khuldruk said before slowly standing.
I wished there was a way he could convey the certainty he had to the other orcs. I knew I had made the right decision. As unhinged as it seemed, I knew it was what needed to be done.
“Quite a predicament you find yourself in,” came a voice from across the hall.
I peered into the cell across from me, but could see nothing but darkness. That was, until the figure crossed into the dim light from the torch on the wall outside the cell.
It was him. The stranger.
“You,” Thavros growled.
“Yes, and I see our plan is working. Your mate is trapped in stone, and you are stuck down here to wither away. While it should be the chief, his strategizing brother will do just as well.”
A low growl rumbled from deep inside, “I will kill you for what you did to her.”
“You will die without your mate. You destroyed your clan’s magic. Everything went according to plan.”
Then it came.
A pulse. Not just through the bond but through the air itself. Like the hum of magic awakening.
The corridor outside the cell was flooded with golden light.
Shouts echoed. Guards scuffled. Boots scrambled. Metal clanged.
