Chapter 34: Three Days Until The World Ends And Everyone I Love Just Told Me Something I Wasn’t Ready To Hear?!

Lior held the sealed document out to Joan and nobody moved to take it.

"An auditor," Joan said. "From the Council."

"Arriving at dawn." Lior’s gaze stopped on Maren’s tail for two full seconds.

"My father was specific."

Soren stood up. "Your father sent you to deliver a letter?"

"My father sent me because the letter has a compliance clause."

Joan broke the wax seal, read both pages, then set the document down flat.

"Mandatory bond classification review for every bonded entity attached to Soren Kane."

Troy pushed off the wall. "Get out, Vasquez."

"I’m delivering official Council corres..."

"You delivered it. Get out."

Lior left. Through the bond, Yara was chanting his name over and over.

Soren, Soren, Soren! Let me follow him. I want to show him what happens to people who carry sealed letters with your name on them.

"No," Soren said out loud. Everyone looked at him.

"Not you," he said to Joan. "Her."

"Control your beast, Kane. I need you to be coherent for the next seventy-two hours."

◆◆◆◆

He caught Dani in the corridor before she left. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

"The auditor will want Tier-3 data," Soren said.

"Give her the pre-Fracture survey logs. The ones from before the seal started cracking, the boss room is on a sublevel three east wing, single guardian with straight corridors."

Dani looked at him. "Those readings are sixty-nine percent wrong."

"I know. She compares them to current scans, finds the discrepancy, and starts asking why Lior’s father filed those readings as current intel." He let that land.

"Then she’s looking at the Vasquez family instead of my bonds."

Dani clicked her pen once. "I’ll have the file ready by dawn."

Old data given to the right enemy was still a weapon.

◆◆◆◆

Troy was the last one out of Joan’s office.

They walked the corridor without talking until Troy stopped at the stairwell, reached up, and pulled the 1# ranking badge off his collar.

The pin left a small hole in the fabric.

"Six hundred students in this building," Troy said.

"Most of them can’t survive a D-rank mob." He pocketed the badge. "Someone has to stand between them and what’s coming."

"The academy needs you on defense," Soren said. "You know that."

"Do you think that’s wrong?"

"No, that part’s right."

Troy nodded once and held out his hand. Soren took it, firm grip, then let go.

"Dawn briefing," Troy said. "In your room, bring everyone."

◆◆◆◆

Selah was waiting in the second-floor corridor, frost climbing past her elbows.

"The bridge bond," she said. "The one that saved me after my roommate died. It’s the only reason I’m breathing, Soren. You caught the backlash through the bond before I even knew your name."

She took a step closer and the temperature dropped five degrees

"Whatever happens in three days. I’m fighting for the bond and for you. I’d rather freeze this campus solid than let something take you from me."

Her cold fingers touched his jaw. Her thumb rested on his chin for two seconds.

[DING! — Obsession Index: Selah Young 30/50 → 31/50. Soul integrity: 50.1% → 50.05%.]

The frost felt good against his skin.

Selah pulled back and walked past him without looking back.

◆◆◆◆

Maren caught him on the stairs.

She was sitting on the landing with her knees up and her tail around her ankles, gold eyes bright enough to cast shadows on the wall.

"Years pretending to be human," she said. "Eating human food, laughing at human jokes while my core temperature runs degrees above normal."

She leaned sideways until her shoulder pressed into his arm. "You’re the first person who touched me and didn’t pull away."

"You were on fire. Someone had to."

"Nobody had to." Her tail unwrapped from her ankles and curled once around his wrist.

The fur was soft and the heat pulsed in time with her heartbeat.

[DING! — Obsession Index: Maren Cole 14/50 → 15/50. Soul integrity: 50.05% → 50.02%.Thermal bond signature detected by Joan Sawyer’s monitoring equipment.]

Each second of Maren’s tail on his skin was another line item in a Bureau file. The girl keeping him warm was building the case against him and had no idea she was doing it.

"After the Fracture," Maren said. "I want to stop hiding what I am but only if you’re still next to me when I do it."

Her tail tightened on Soren’s wrist before letting him go.

◆◆◆◆

Yara was sitting on the edge of his bed in the dark, fully manifested, white hair pooling on the sheets.

Soren sat on the chair, six feet away from the bed.

Six feet might be the difference between the seal holding and breaking.

She noticed. "You sat in the chair."

"The chair is safer."

"For who?"

Soren didn’t answer.

Yara crossed the room in two steps, put both hands on the arms of the chair, boxed him in.

Her hair brushed his shoulders. The cold coming off her skin bit through his shirt.

"Three hundred years I’ve waited for you, I can wait three more days but after the Fracture, I want you to say my real name. The one from before the Author locked it."

"I don’t know your real name."

"You will." Her lips were an inch from his ear. "When you say it, I become yours in a way the system can’t measure and no one can’t undo."

[DING! — Obsession Index: Yara 41/75 → 42/75. Soul integrity: 50.02% → 50.01%. WARNING: 0.01% margin remaining.]

Yara’s lips an inch from his ear and his soul one fraction from triggering Joan’s seal.

"Say you’ll say it."

"When the time comes. I’ll say it."

She held his eyes, then the shadows took her.

Then Grimm pushed her nose into his hand. We’re all afraid, Master of losing you.

"Yeah. I got that."

Three confessions.

Three Obsession ticks.

50.1% down to 50.01% in one night, from being loved.

The triple channel would drop him to 35%.

Joan’s seal would shatter the second he crossed 50% but the reset would erase Joan’s report too, which meant her leverage was imaginary, which meant he could walk into her office right now and end her power over him with one sentence.

He kept his mouth shut. Joan thinking she had power was why she was still helping.

The floor shook low, continuous, rattling the window. It didn’t stop.

Through Pack Sense he saw the Tier-3 seal crack all the way through.

Shadow poured upward through the stone.

Students on the ground floor started screaming.

Joan’s voice hit the intercom. "All students secure positions, this is not a drill."

Soren was already at the door.