Chương 38: A Severed Bond Reborn

We didn't leave the area immediately. That would've been the sensible decision, which was precisely why none of us trusted it. Behind us, the ruined spire continued to smoke, collapsed inward like a dead insect curled around a needle. Crimson fog still clung to the black cliffs, though it had thinned considerably, peeling away from the shoreline in slow strands as the pressure in the air gradually weakened. It had not vanished entirely. The oppressive presence surrounding the continent had not disappeared either.

The Demon Continent remained distant, little more than a dark mass stretching across the horizon beneath clouds bruised with crimson light. Even from here, I could feel its presence waiting beyond the volcanic islands. A continent filled with creatures that apparently had never learned the value of minding their own business. I disliked it already. After the spire collapsed, Aura carried us to the highest peak in the surrounding island chain, a jagged ridge overlooking the sea and the ruins below.

The summit was broad enough for her dragon form to land, though only barely, and once everyone had dismounted, she returned to her smaller form. Her platinum hair glimmered faintly against the black stone. From the ridge, nearly everything was visible. Night had nearly settled by then. The sky deepened into shades of violet and black while scattered stars pierced through the clouds. Wind swept across the ridge, carrying salt, ash, sulfur, and something heavier beneath them. We decided to make camp.

"Camp" was a generous description. Adrian immediately inspected the perimeter while Malcolm tested the stability of the ridge, using small pulses of gravity to make certain the entire summit would not decide to collapse beneath us while we rested. Vera settled near a natural shelf of stone with Vesper perched upon her shoulder, the familiar's crimson feathers dim beneath the night sky. Celeste produced a blanket from one of the packs and draped it around my shoulders without asking. I looked at her, and she smiled.

"You looked cold."

"I'm not cold."

"I said you looked cold."

"That does not improve the situation." She patted my shoulder anyway. Aura settled on my other side, close enough that one of her tails occasionally brushed against my side. Across the fire sat Nadia and Rowan, both exhausted from the battle and whatever damage remained within their memories. They kept watching me as though afraid I might disappear if they looked away for too long. I ignored it, mostly… A small fire burned between us, less from necessity than because it gave the gathering some sense of shape.

Humans had always been drawn to fire, and apparently vampires had inherited the habit even after flame lost most of its authority. For a while, no one spoke, content to let the shattered spire below us fill the silence. Eventually, I leaned back against a dark stone outcrop and turned my attention toward Nadia and Rowan.

"Tell me again. How much time do we have?" Nadia swallowed.

"More than one hundred years. In the original timeline, at least."

"At least," Adrian repeated. Rowan rubbed both hands over his face.

"That's the problem. What we did today may change everything. Destroying the spire might delay him, or it could alert whoever is preparing his rebirth."

"Possibly both," Vera added quietly. Nadia nodded.

"The machine was feeding power underground."

"Into him," Rowan finished. Aura frowned.

"The dark god."

"Demon Lord," Rowan corrected.

"Evil god sounds better," Celeste offered.

"More dramatic." I gave her a look. She shrugged.

"It does." Malcolm stood near the edge of the ridge with his arms crossed, staring toward the distant continent.

"If these spires are connected, destroying one may have sent some kind of signal."

"Almost certainly," Adrian replied. That was exactly what had been bothering me and the reason we had chosen to be cautious before moving on to the next spire. My attention drifted back toward the distant horizon.

"By the time we destroy the second or third spire, whatever authority controls this continent will almost certainly know we are here." The others fell quiet.

"There's no sensible world in which six structures responsible for feeding power into a buried god remain undefended after one of them suddenly collapses. Whoever created these things will react eventually." Celeste tilted her head.

"Demons do possess brains. They're simply worse at using them than people with prettier faces."

"A generous assessment." I couldn't help but marvel at that simple way her mind works sometimes. She smiled. Adrian nodded once.

"If we continue destroying them one at a time, they can predict the pattern."

"Exactly. Once they understand what we're doing, eventually we arrive at the next spire and find something waiting for us." Malcolm's expression tightened.

"An army."

"Or something worse," Vera added. Vesper clicked her beak. I glanced toward the crimson crow.

"Yes, yes. The ominous bird agrees." Vera smiled faintly. Nadia stared down at her hands.

"In the future, the spires were heavily defended. Armies, wards, greater demons, and things we could barely look at directly."

"And today?"

"Much lighter," Rowan answered.

"Still dangerous, but nowhere near what we remember."

"Because we arrived early," Adrian reasoned.

"Because they were not ready," I corrected. That distinction mattered because an unprepared enemy was an opportunity, while an alerted one was a consequence waiting to catch up with us. Celeste leaned forward with her elbows resting on her knees.

"Then we destroy as many as possible before they understand what's happening." I pointed toward her.

"For once, your bloodthirst is useful." Her face brightened immediately.

"Thank you, Mother."

"That wasn't a compliment."

"You almost managed one."

"No."

"Emotionally, it was." I ignored her and looked toward the others.

"The best strategy isn't destroying all six immediately." Aura's head snapped toward me.

"But Master, we can burn them."

"We know we can destroy one," Adrian replied.

"Perhaps two or three. Beyond that, we have no idea what resistance we will encounter." Aura frowned.

"He's right," Malcolm added.

"We still know almost nothing about the actual strength of this continent."

"Or its rulers," Vera added.

"Or whether something beneath us is already aware of what we're doing." My thoughts returned to the machine beneath the first spire: the pulsing crimson heart forcing power into the depths, the chains anchoring the guardian, and the creature clawing its way from the pit while something far greater slept beneath the continent itself. Whatever was down there, I had no intention of waking it before I was ready.

"If possible, we cripple three spires. Then we leave." Nadia looked up sharply while Rowan's brow furrowed. I lifted one hand before either could object.

"According to your memories, we still have more than a century before this creature awakens. Destroying three of six should be enough to disrupt whatever process is underway. Afterward, we return home, prepare properly, become stronger, gather information, and deal with the remaining three later." Adrian's eyes narrowed as he considered the plan.

"So we treat this as a staged campaign. Hit what we can now, and then return when we're better prepared."

"That's the idea." Celeste's smile widened.

"Mother planning an assassination more than a century in advance. Very subtle."

"It's called patience."

"It's called terrifying," she countered.

"Both can be true." Nadia bit her lip, unease creeping into her expression.

"What if destroying even one spire changes the timing?"

"That's possible." Her concern only deepened.

"And if whoever is behind this realizes what we're doing, what if they force the rebirth early?"

"That's possible too." Rowan's voice dropped.

"Then leaving any of the spires standing could be just as dangerous." Adrian shook his head.

"Maybe, but charging ahead without understanding what we're walking into is worse." I gave a slow nod.

"If we charge forward and die here, then everything you sacrificed to warn us becomes meaningless. We don't understand this continent, its rulers, armies, terrain, magic, or whatever else might be sleeping beneath it. I have survived this long because I know when to burn a path forward and when to step back before the jaws close." Celeste looked toward me, and something suspiciously soft crept into her expression. I disliked it immediately.

"What?"

"Nothing."

"That was not a look that meant nothing." Her smile turned warmer.

"It was a proud look."

"Stop." Naturally, she did not. Across the fire, Nadia lowered her gaze into the flames.

"What other choice do we have?" Her voice was quiet, not from weakness, but from exhaustion.

"At minimum, we have already destroyed one of the six. Even if we cannot reach another right now, we have changed something. Whatever happens from here, our chances are already better than they were in your original future." Rowan looked toward me.

"That sounds like something you said before." I stilled slightly. He appeared to regret the admission, but he did not take it back.

"Did I?" He nodded.

"Before the final battle, when everyone thought we might lose. You said chances were just doors people were too afraid to kick open." Celeste pressed a hand to her chest, visibly pleased.

"That is painfully you, Mother." Adrian gave a small nod.

"Accurate." Malcolm's mouth curved faintly.

"It does sound like something you would say." This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. Vera looked at me with far too much warmth in her expression. I exhaled slowly.

"Wonderful. Apparently, future me had a talent for memorable speeches." Celeste leaned closer.

"You say that as if the present you were any better."

"I'm practical."

"You are sitting on a black mountain planning how to cripple a Demon Lord's rebirth while wearing a casino coat."

"That is circumstantial."

"It is also extremely you." Aura released a small puff of smoke.

"Master looks good in the coat."

"Thank you, Aura." Celeste stared at her.

"You're encouraging her."

"I'm supporting the correct opinion."

"That's somehow worse." For a short while, the tension around the fire eased, and the ridge felt almost ordinary. Then Nadia spoke again.

"The second spire should be east of this one, past the island chain along the outer coast. I remember black sand, bone trees, and a valley filled with ash." Rowan frowned and pressed two fingers against his temple.

"I remember that too. There was a bridge, but it wasn't built. It looked grown, almost like a spine." Adrian leaned forward slightly.

"Defenses?" Rowan's jaw tightened.

"Unclear." Nadia shook her head.

"I remember screaming." The fire cracked between us. No one made a joke.

"Then we approach carefully. Aura carries us close enough to observe the area, not directly into the center. If anything feels wrong, we leave." Aura looked personally offended.

"Leave without burning?"

"Yes."

"But…"

"Caution, Aura." She pouted. Celeste leaned closer to me.

"She gets that from you."

"She does not."

"She absolutely does."

"You pout with your eyebrows," Malcolm added. I slowly looked toward him. He immediately found the ocean fascinating.

"Even if another fifty years pass before we return, time will only make us stronger. My strength continues to grow naturally, while the rest of you can improve through training and experience. Aura will mature, and Nadia and Rowan may recover more of the memories they lost." I paused for only a moment before adding the final possibility.

"And by then, we may have found Akane." Celeste's eyes lit with dangerous interest. Immediately, I knew I had made a mistake. There were certain words one should never speak around Celeste. Akane was quickly becoming one of them.

"Oh."

"No."

"You said her name."

"I was listing strategic variables."

"You said Akane."

"I have spoken many names."

"Not like that." I stared at her.

"Like what?" Her smile became irritating and face so incredibly punchable.

"Like you actually want to meet her." Everyone else fell suspiciously quiet, as though they had collectively decided to wait and see how deeply Celeste could dig this particular hole. Even the crackling fire seemed unusually attentive. Normally, I would have denied it immediately, with enough irritation to guarantee Celeste would claim victory regardless.

This time, however, something about sitting on that ridge with the ruined spire below us, Nadia and Rowan across the fire, and an impossible future stretching somewhere beyond the horizon left me strangely unwilling to hide behind irritation. So instead of denying anything, I turned fully toward Celeste and smiled.

"So what if I do?" Celeste blinked. That was satisfying. Then, I leaned closer.

"You seem remarkably pleased by the idea of me finding this fox woman. Are you certain you will feel the same way when she arrives and steals all the attention you keep trying to monopolize?" Celeste simply stared at me while Adrian turned away with absolutely no attempt at subtlety. Malcolm covered a cough with one fist, and Vera's lips twitched as she fought back a smile. Aura narrowed her eyes.

"No one steals, Master."

"Exactly." I kept my attention on Celeste.

"You may have competition." Celeste opened her mouth, closed it again, and then seemed to reconsider before trying once more. Rendering her speechless was rare enough that I allowed myself a moment of satisfaction. Unfortunately, the victory lasted only a few seconds before her eyes lit with unmistakable delight.

"Mother."

"What?"

"You teased me back."

"I threatened your emotional stability."

"You teased me."

"I already regret it." She clasped both hands together and beamed.

"This is growth."

"This is a mistake."

"This is Akane's influence, and she's not even here yet."

"I will walk into the ocean."

"You would come back."

"I might not." Adrian finally spoke without looking toward either of us.

"You would." Traitor… Celeste leaned against my shoulder, radiant with victory despite having been briefly cornered.

"For the record, I will only be jealous if she's boring."

"She fought Mother for more than twenty-four hours," Vera pointed out gently.

"I doubt boring will be the problem." Celeste nodded with visible satisfaction.

"Then I approve until given reason not to." Aura huffed.

"I do not."

"You dislike everyone at first," Celeste replied.

"I dislike you now."

"And yet we're bonding."

"We are not."

"You continue talking to me." Aura frowned, apparently realizing too late that Celeste had trapped her with her own logic. I looked toward Adrian.

"Your wife is infecting the dragon."

"I noticed."

"Fix it."

"I cannot fix what I married." Celeste sighed happily.

"He loves me."

"He has accepted his doom." I looked at Adrian with pity.

"That's marriage." He said without shame. A rough laugh escaped Rowan, sudden and almost broken at first but unmistakably genuine. Nadia looked toward him in surprise before a tired smile slowly appeared on her own face. For one brief moment, they both looked young again.

Not survivors from a dead future or severed children carrying memories of a family that no longer existed, but simply two people sitting beside a fire while everyone around them argued about jealousy, dragons, and a fox woman none of us had even met yet. That was when I made my decision. Perhaps I had already made it and was only waiting for the right moment to admit it. My attention settled on Nadia and Rowan, and they noticed immediately. Their laughter faded as the fire cracked softly between us.

"Come here." Both of them froze. Celeste reacted first, surprise flickering across her face before something gentler replaced it. Adrian slowly turned toward me.

"Mother." His tone was careful. I lifted one hand.

"I know."

"Do you?" Adrian rarely challenged me in front of the others, and whenever he did, it meant he believed the matter was important enough to push back. Then he deserved a proper answer.

"I have felt something since the moment they touched me. A connection, incomplete and inactive, but undeniably there. Something once tied them to me and was severed violently enough to leave the damage behind." Nadia's breath caught and Rowan's eyes widened. I looked toward Adrian but spoke for everyone.

"It's not a normal bond. It feels wounded, almost like a thread that remembers where it belongs but no longer knows how to reach me." Celeste became interested, while Vera pressed one hand lightly against her chest. Malcolm frowned.

"You felt that from the beginning and said nothing?"

"I was skeptical."

"You're still skeptical," Adrian pointed out.

"Yes, but seeing the spire changed things." Below us, the ruined tower continued to smoke, proof carved directly into the island.

"They were right about the first spire, and their knowledge goes far beyond that. Silas Vane, Elias, Vaust Royale… all of it matches what they claimed. More importantly, I can feel traces of my bond lingering inside them. Either someone has constructed the most elaborate trap I have ever encountered, or enough of their story is true that abandoning them now would be foolish." Adrian's expression remained serious.

"Turning them binds them to your life again."

"I understand."

"If you die, the risk extends to them."

"That's true. I doubt either of them would have asked me to restore the bond the moment we met if they had not already understood what reconnecting it meant."

"We have no idea how souls displaced through time will react to the bond."

"I know." That was a very understandable concern. Vera spoke quietly.

"It could hurt them." Nadia shook her head immediately.

"Not more than this." Rowan nodded.

"Being near you without the bond feels…" Rowan swallowed visibly before forcing out the final word.

"Wrong." The admission struck harder than I expected, and when I glanced toward Celeste, I found her watching the two of them with a far more serious expression.

"I do not mind." Adrian glanced toward her. She shrugged, although her expression remained serious.

"If Mother has decided, then I stand with her. I always do."

"You also stand with her when she's wrong," Adrian replied.

"Yes, but loudly enough that she knows." I almost smiled. My favorability for Nadia rose slightly. Aura moved closer and glared at Nadia and Rowan like a tiny dragon-shaped judge.

"If they become bonded, do they also get to call you Mother?"

"Probably." Aura frowned.

"I call you Master."

"Yes."

"I'm still special."

"That's true." She brightened immediately. Celeste whispered, "She gets that from you too."

"I'm ignoring that." Adrian remained silent for several long moments before finally releasing a breath through his nose.

"If you do this, we watch them closely afterward."

"Obviously."

"If anything feels wrong…"

"I handle it."

"No." Adrian's voice hardened.

"We handle it." The words settled over the camp as I looked toward Adrian. Of all my children, he had been the first to stand beside me, the quiet blade who had remained there for more than a century. I still remembered that cursed house, his dying wife begging me to save him while he pleaded for me to save her instead. That moment had bound more than his life to mine. Now he was not asking for permission. He was reminding me that whatever came next belonged to all of us, not just me.

I found that more comforting than I cared to admit.

"Alright, we handle it." Celeste smiled while Vera visibly relaxed and Malcolm gave a single approving nod. Even Aura seemed pleased, apparently satisfied that I had agreed with enough conviction to make the matter final. I turned back toward Nadia and Rowan.

"I will only say this once. If either of you are lying, if something is using you, if the bond forms incorrectly, or if you threaten this family in any way, I will kill you myself." Tears gathered in Nadia's eyes again, but this time she smiled through them.

"I know." Rowan bowed his head.

"You told us the same thing the first time."

"Did I?"

"Yes."

"Good. At least I was consistent." They approached slowly and with deliberate care before kneeling together on the black stone in front of me. Wind swept ash and salt across the ridge as Celeste rose to stand at my right and Adrian took his place on my left. Vera and Malcolm remained behind Nadia and Rowan, not restraining them, but close enough to intervene if necessary. Aura pressed against my leg with wide violet eyes fixed on the pair, while Vesper watched silently from Vera's shoulder.

I lowered myself in front of Nadia first. Her violet hair shifted in the wind, but her pink eyes never left mine.

"You remember this?"

"Some of it," she whispered.

"Mostly how it felt."

"Then remember this part as well. This is not the other timeline, and I'm not the version of me who turned you before."

"I know."

"Do you still choose this?"

"Yes." There was no hesitation. I leaned forward and sank my fangs into Nadia's neck. Her blood was warm and human, but beneath it lingered something unfamiliar, something worn thin by time and damaged at the level of the soul. Another faint trace of power clung to it as well, perhaps foxfire, though I had no way to be certain. As my venom entered her blood, Nadia gasped and dug her fingers into the stone as the severed thread inside her flared almost immediately.

For one terrible heartbeat, it resisted, not in rejection, but with the trembling uncertainty of something that had forgotten how to become whole. Then the resistance gave way. The broken connection opened and reached for me. I answered with blood. Then I turned to Rowan. He was trembling, though not from fear. Anticipation, grief, and something perilously close to relief moved across his face as he waited for his turn.

"Still choose this?" His usual arrogance cracked beneath a tearful smile.

"I want it." I bit Rowan as well. His blood tasted different from Nadia's, warmer and sharpened by adrenaline, with old sorrow lingering beneath it. The same severed connection waited inside him, ragged and aching, and my venom immediately latched onto it and began pulling the broken pieces back toward where they belonged. Rowan choked on a sound that was not quite pain. Recognition… The turning claimed them both almost at once.

Nadia clawed at the stone while Rowan doubled forward, breathing hard as their bodies were dragged through the violent threshold between death and rebirth. I rose and sliced both wrists open with my nails. Celeste's attention snapped toward the blood, an old instinct surfacing despite centuries of control, while Aura watched with open fascination. Then I offered one wrist to Nadia and the other to Rowan.

"Drink." Nadia bit first, her newly formed fangs piercing my wrist as the bond surged toward completion with enough force to catch my breath. Rowan followed moments later, and the instant his fangs sank into my other wrist, both severed threads came alive. They didn't feel newly created but restored. The remnants inside Nadia and Rowan seemed to remember the shape they had once possessed, drawing themselves back together and locking into place behind my ribs with enough force to make the world shift beneath me.

Nadia and Rowan were there now, two distinct presences settling into the bond. They didn't feel like the long-established connections I shared with Adrian and Celeste, or the newer bonds I had formed with Malcolm and Vera. These were different, shaped by something that had already existed, been violently severed, and somehow found its way back. As they settled, however, another sensation emerged beneath them. A boundary…

There was no number appearing conveniently in my thoughts and no hidden law of blood or fate explaining what I was feeling. I simply knew. Pressure built behind my ribs, accompanied by an absolute sense of fullness, as though the part of my soul responsible for carrying these bonds had finally reached the furthest point it could safely stretch. Adrian and Celeste. Malcolm and Vera. Nadia and Rowan. Three pairs. Six children, each anchored to me through blood and bond.

Some part of me had always sensed that a boundary existed, a point where the gift of creating these bonds would cease to strengthen us and begin placing too much weight upon everyone connected to me. I had reached it. If I tried to add another child, I knew with certainty that the bond would no longer form as cleanly. The strain would not fall upon me alone. It would spread through every connection already rooted within me, turning something meant to bind us together into a burden we would all be forced to carry.

A sudden wave of dizziness rolled through me, and I swallowed against it. Celeste's hand immediately pressed against my back.

"Mother?" I tried to straighten, but my body disagreed. Adrian caught my shoulder from the opposite side.

"What's wrong?"

"My limit." The words emerged more quietly than I intended.

"I feel full. Six is all I can carry properly. If I tried to turn another…" My vision blurred along the edges. Celeste's expression shifted instantly from wonder to fear.

"Mother."

"It would become a burden." Nadia and Rowan pulled away almost at the same time, both gasping as the last of the change settled through them. Their eyes transformed first. Violet seeped into the edges of Nadia's pink irises like twilight bleeding into rose-colored glass, while Rowan's golden gaze sharpened beneath the faint amethyst glow of my bloodline. Their skin paled, their breathing slowed, and their hearts faltered before settling into the strange, uneven rhythm of newly turned vampires.

The bond pulsed through me in answer. Complete. And then the fullness deepened. It wasn't quite pain, but the sensation was overwhelming. Too much had settled into place at once, too many connections flaring with new life while my soul struggled to adjust to the sudden weight of them. Celeste moved directly in front of me.

"Mother, look at me."

"I'm looking."

"You absolutely are not." Aura grabbed the edge of my coat.

"Master?" Adrian tightened his grip.

"Sit down."

"I'm already crouching."

"You're swaying." Nadia stared at me in horror, my blood still staining her lips.

"Did we hurt you?"

"No," I denied it. Rowan looked ready to retreat straight off the mountain.

"We should not have…"

"Quiet." They both froze.

"This is not your fault. The bond is settling. That is all." Vera knelt near Nadia, one hand hovering without touching her.

"Mother, your eyes."

"What about them?"

"They are glowing," Malcolm answered. That sounded inconvenient, and a moment later the world around me began to distort. The firelight stretched strangely across my vision while the black ridge seemed to tilt beneath my feet, though I was reasonably certain the mountain itself had remained perfectly still. Below us, the ruined spire blurred into a dark smear against the island as the wind dulled to a distant murmur and Celeste's voice seemed to drift farther away.

"Mother?" Adrian's voice cut through the haze with sudden urgency as Aura tightened her grip on my coat. Then Nadia and Rowan called out together, both voices carrying the same word.

"Mother!" Six threads answered inside me at once, each presence distinct and overwhelming in its own way. For one impossible moment, I felt the entire bond as a single living whole, and the weight of it nearly stole what little balance I had left. The world tilted. Celeste caught me first, and Adrian steadied both of us as Aura's roar cut through the confusion. Then everything vanished. I expected darkness. Instead, my eyes opened beneath an unfamiliar sky.

Warm air surrounded me, carrying the scent of rain on stone, crushed flowers, and something faintly sweet beneath it. Silver grass stretched in every direction under a moon far too large to be real. Only then did I understand that I wasn't truly standing there. I was remembering it. My body felt familiar yet somehow different, more settled into its strength. Ruin and blood moved beneath my skin with practiced ease, accompanied by another presence woven so closely into my power that it felt almost natural.

Across the field stood a tall, poised woman whose beauty carried the same deliberate edge as danger. Her dark hair fell in a heavy sweep down her back, framing sharp features that were far too composed for someone who had clearly just finished trying to kill me. Fox ears rose through the thick strands, turning slightly at every sound, while nine long tails fanned out behind her with effortless control. Pale flames curled along their tips, never quite touching the grass.

Her golden eyes held far more than simple hostility. Challenge sat there first, bright and unwavering, but beneath it lingered amusement and a possessive certainty that felt disturbingly familiar. Blood streaked one corner of her mouth. I was bleeding too. Whatever had happened between us had torn the field apart.

Trees had been snapped through their trunks, stone lay split open across the ground, and deep craters broke up the silver grass between long trenches scorched into the earth by attacks I could not fully remember throwing. She looked over the destruction as though it pleased her. Then she laughed, breathless and entirely satisfied.

"You," she murmured, her voice smooth but edged enough to cut, "are the most unreasonable creature I have ever met." My mouth moved before I consciously chose to answer.

"And you are remarkably difficult to kill." Her smile widened, and something tightened unexpectedly in my chest. It was not fear or irritation, but recognition, immediate and impossible to mistake. The nine-tailed fox stepped closer through the silver grass, her golden eyes never leaving mine.

"Good," she whispered.

"Then we will never be bored." Her name rose within my mind before she ever spoke it. Akane… She reached toward me, blood still staining her fingertips as pale foxfire curled lazily around them. Before her hand could touch my face, the memory flashed white and vanished.