Dawn seeped in slow through the shattered windows. The barrier Li Wei had woven around them shimmered faintly before dissolving into morning air. The world smelled of rain and blood.
Ren stirred first. His skin was clammy, his throat raw; the taste of serpent blood lingered on his tongue. Li Wei was still beside him, one arm behind Ren's head, the other resting over their bound wrists. His eyes were open—unblinking, haunted.
"Did you sleep at all?" Ren's voice was faint.
Li Wei shook his head. "Demons don't dream," he murmured, thumb brushing the pulse at Ren's wrist. "Not anymore."
Ren tried to sit up. The silk cord tugged between them, glowing softly. His body felt strange—alive, but humming, like something inside him was breathing twice. He looked down: the mark over his heart had changed, the edges darkened to a faint serpent shape.
"What's happening to me?"
"You're carrying my essence," Li Wei said. "The bond isn't just soul-deep now—it's flesh."
Ren's heartbeat quickened, and Li Wei flinched as if he could feel it himself. The link tugged tight; every small motion echoed through them both. Ren's confusion spilled into anger.
"You did this without asking," he said, turning on him. "You just—decided."
Li Wei's eyes flashed gold. "You were dying." His voice cracked through the quiet. "You think I'd let you fade when I could save you?"
The air thickened. Between them the cord pulsed once, hard, like a heartbeat shared too close.
Ren swallowed. "Then what am I now, Li Wei? Half-human? Half-curse?"
Li Wei leaned closer until their foreheads touched. "Mine," he said softly, the word trembling between a confession and a warning.
Ren closed his eyes. The link throbbed; emotions poured through—grief, devotion, jealousy older than time. He saw flashes of Li Wei's memories: centuries of solitude, a temple in ruins, the hunter's blade piercing divine skin. He saw himself—another life, another death.
Ren jerked back, gasping. "Stop showing me that!"
"I'm not trying to," Li Wei said through clenched teeth. "The bond is unstable. Our thoughts are bleeding together."
Outside, thunder grumbled again. The world beyond the courtyard was stirring—the hunter's magic returning to hunt what it failed to kill.
Ren pressed a hand over his heart. "Then we fix it before it consumes us both."
Li Wei looked at him, jaw tight, eyes still glowing. "If I lose you again, there'll be nothing left to fix."
The dawn light bled across their faces, binding them in silence. The day had only just begun, and the bond that saved them was already starting to burn.