Chapter 26: I Made A Deal With The OG Protagonist And My Shadow Wolf got to close?!

Soren told Troy the truth on the training yard at six in the morning because the tremor from yesterday had cracked the Tier-3 seal and waiting wasn’t going to make the conversation easier.

Not the full truth.

He told Troy there was a Dormant Fracture Seed below the academy.

He told him the tremors were going to get worse and that the Tier-3 sublevel had something sleeping inside it that would wake when the seed activated.

Troy stood with his arms crossed and listened without interrupting, which was worse than if he’d argued because it meant he was taking it seriously.

"How do you know?" Troy asked when Soren finished.

"Same way I knew about your knight’s private warnings."

Troy’s jaw did the small thing. "You keep saying that."

"Because it keeps being true."

Troy looked at the training yard, at the scorch mark on the railing where Maren’s apple had burned through the metal, at the frost line on the dormitory windows where Selah’s output had been climbing every night.

"What’s down there?"

"Something Shadow-type, Primordial classification. If it wakes up fully it’s going to pull at every bonded beast in this facility."

"Including yours?"

"Including mine."

Troy was quiet for a while and Soren let him be quiet because pushing Troy Minden into a decision was how people in this novel ended up on the wrong side of a sword.

"Joint operation," Troy said. "We go down, we assess, we come back up before whatever’s sleeping has time to stretch."

"Agreed."

"And Kane?"

"Yeah."

"If your wolf turns on me down there, I won’t hesitate."

"She won’t."

Soren wasn’t sure about that at all but he held Troy’s stare and said nothing more.

◆◆◆◆

Maren was waiting for him outside the cafeteria with her hands in her pockets and her knot already falling apart on one side.

"I’m coming," she said.

"I didn’t ask you."

"I survived a Fracture that killed thirty-two people. You need fire down there because whatever is in that crystal is shadow-aligned and I’m the only one who has it."

He looked at her for a second.

"Your control slipped two days ago in the training yard."

"My control slips when I’m surprised. I won’t be surprised." She tilted her head.

"Also you literally grabbed my burning hands with your bare skin and held on. If you’re allowed to make stupid decisions, so am I."

"Fine. But you stay behind Selah."

"Why behind the ice girl?"

"Because if you flare she can contain it and if she flares you can cauterize it. You’re each other’s failsafe."

Maren blinked. "That’s... actually smart."

"Don’t sound so surprised."

◆◆◆◆

Before the descent, Dani Sloan found him.

She was standing outside the east stairwell with her moth on her collar and her clipboard under her arm.

"Fen Harrak woke up," she said. "Three days ago. Memory is partial but the Bureau interviewed him yesterday."

Soren went still.

"He doesn’t remember you," Dani said.

"He doesn’t remember why he was in the east wing or what was in his notebook." She paused.

"He remembers a woman with white hair and wolf ears. He told Joan’s people she spoke to him."

The hallway got very quiet.

Grimm was pressed against Soren’s leg and her whole body went rigid under his hand.

"There’s one more thing," Dani said. "Fen said the woman told him something. She told him the Fracture is going to be beautiful. That someone is going to open it for her."

Soren’s gut twisted.

Yara? he thought hard through the bond.

The shadow on the wall moved.

"I haven’t been talking to him." Yara’s voice came through the bond. "Those aren’t my words, master."

He believed her.

Which meant something else was wearing her face in other people’s dreams.

The Author thread pulsed at the back of his mind.

Author: NOT LOCATED.

That notification had been sitting there for weeks.

Something was using Yara’s appearance and Yara’s voice to tell a student about the Fracture, and it wasn’t her nor the system.

He moved on because the descent was in two hours and he didn’t have time to chase a ghost.

"Thank you," he told Dani. "Keep watching the file."

She nodded once and left.

◆◆◆◆

That night Soren sat on the floor of the dorm room with his back against the bed and Grimm in his lap and waited.

Selah sat on her bed across from him, knees pulled up, watching.

Yara manifested at midnight.

She stepped out of the shadow in the corner, full humanoid form, her red eyes found him before her body had fully formed.

She crossed the room in three steps and sat down on the floor right beside him, her hip and thigh pressed tight against his leg.

Her hand came up and rested flat on his chest, fingers spread wide.

"You’re bringing him," she said.

"Yes."

She leaned in, her shoulder sliding against his arm, her body warm and solid where it touched him.

Her hand moved lower, slipping under the hem of his shirt to press palm-down against his bare stomach.

"He is the one who was supposed to tame me. You know that."

"I know."

Her fingers traced a slow line across his skin, up toward his ribs.

Yara turned her head, her white hair brushing his neck, her wolf ear flicking once against his jaw.

Her breath hit warm against his skin.

"And you’re inviting him into a dungeon where I’m at my strongest and you expect me to stand beside him and not feel the pull that was designed into me?"

Soren looked at her.

"Can you resist it?" he asked.

"I’ve been resisting it all this time."

She pressed closer, her chest against his side now, her hand under his shirt pulling him toward her slightly.

Her other hand came up to rest on the back of his neck, fingers threading into his hair.

"For one more day."

"I can resist anything for you." Her voice dropped.

She gave his hair a small tug and her lips brushed close to his ear.

"Then stay close to me."

"I always do."

She looked at the floor. Her hands were shaking and she folded them together to make them stop.

The one under his shirt stayed.

Selah was watching from her bed with her knees pulled up, her chin on her arms and the frost on her knuckles was climbing.

"If the system tries to take her," Selah said quietly, "I’ll help you hold on."

Yara turned her red eyes on Selah.

Then said "Thank you, ice girl," and the way she said it wasn’t warm but it wasn’t hostile either.

She gave Soren one last press of her body against his, her lips close enough to his ear that he felt the warmth, then she stepped back into the shadow and the wolf reappeared on the floor.

Soren put his hand on Grimm’s head and looked at the ceiling.

[DING! — ALERT: Bonded entity Yara Hale’s suppressed resonance with Troy Minden is generating interference with Primordial Tamer bond. If both bonds activate simultaneously during high-stress event, FORCED BOND ARBITRATION will occur. The system will choose which tamer claims Yara permanently. Outcome: unpredictable.]

[DING! — Quest timer: 12 days to Fracture. 8 days to seal breach.]

[DING! — Obsession Index: Yara 49/50. Selah 25/50.]

[DING! — Soul integrity: 68%.]

Soren closed his eyes. Tomorrow they went down.