Everything changes in Chapter 21.
Max believed surrendering to destiny would protect the people she loved. She trusted that if she gave herself fully to the path before her, Heaven would guard what mattered most.
Then someone she loves is broken before her eyes.
What remains of faith when grief demands an answer?
Chapter 21 is a reckoning Max never expected, and one she may never walk away from unchanged.
Thank you for staying with Max, Seth, Alec and the others. This chapter matters more than it may first appear.
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Time no longer moves for us as it once did. It bends and shifts around our lives, making years feel shorter than they should. We have learned to live with it, although returning home makes me realize how much can change while we are gone.
The house looks exactly as I remember it when we arrive, but something feels different the moment I step inside.
I stop in the entrance hall and look around.
A small toy lies in the corner, while a worn child's shoe rests near the door.
My brow furrows as I stare at them. What would a child's toy be doing in my house?
I glance around the entrance hall again, half expecting an explanation to appear among the familiar furniture. Nothing changes, and the question follows me as I head upstairs.
Unease grows with every step.
My bedroom door gives its familiar creak when I push it open, but the scent beyond it stops me before I enter. The lavender and oils I remember, have disappeared. Another fragrance hangs in their place, faint enough that I might have missed it if everything else had felt normal.
I step into my room and slowly look around.
The walls remain the same, but my bed has changed. A new dressing table stands against the wall, covered with bottles, brushes and belongings I have never seen before.
Someone has been using my room.
My attention shifts toward the closet, and the unease in my chest tightens.
My hand reaches the door before hesitation catches it. Part of me wants to leave it closed and find someone who can explain everything downstairs. Instead, I curl my fingers around the handle and pull.
Unfamiliar clothes fill the space where mine should be.
Shoes I have never worn line the bottom of the closet. Several bottles of perfume sit neatly on the shelf, and every trace of the life I left behind has disappeared.
I stare at the clothes as the meaning begins to sink in.
Someone has been living here.
Someone has taken my place.
A sudden heat spreads beneath my skin.
I lower my gaze as golden inscriptions begin moving along my arms without being summoned. They travel faster than usual, gathering across my wrists before climbing higher.
Something is wrong.
The Living Scripture already knows what my mind is still struggling to accept.
A single understanding passes through the connection between us, carrying a certainty that leaves no room for the explanations I have been trying to find.
I have been betrayed.
The thought strikes hard enough to tighten my chest.
Power answers before I can control it.
My feet leave the floor as energy surges through me. Golden inscriptions race across my arms, neck and chest, followed by streams of Flame that break free and circle the room.
I clench my jaw until it aches.
The Flame tightens around me.
Someone slept in my bed. Someone opened this closet every morning and chose what to wear. Someone stood in front of that dressing table as though she belonged here.
As though I never had.
My fist hits the wall.
Gold explodes through the impact.
The Flame races outward beneath my knuckles and spreads across the wall in branching lines before fading. It leaves something behind, a thin golden trace embedded in the plaster like the memory of fire rather than the damage of it.
I stare at my hand.
Then I laugh.
The sound comes out wrong, somewhere between disbelief and fury, and the Flame pulses with it.
A sharp crack answers from across the room.
The mirror splits straight through the center.
My laugh dies.
"He replaced me."
Saying it aloud makes everything worse.
My hands close over my head as I turn away from the closet. I pace once across the room, then turn back because apparently there is nowhere I can look that doesn't have her in it.
The Flame follows every movement.
When I turn, it whips behind me. When my hands tighten in my hair, the inscriptions flare across my arms. When my gaze catches the unfamiliar clothes again, a stream of gold lashes across the closet and tears one door from its hinges.
"Seriously?"
My voice cracks, and fury rises fast enough to cover it.
I grab the fallen closet door and shove it away. The moment my fingers touch the wood, gold streaks across its surface and leaves another faint trace behind.
"I gave up everything."
The Flame surges higher.
"I did what they wanted."
Golden inscriptions tear free from my skin.
"I trusted him."
The room erupts.
Flame lashes across the ceiling. Bottles jump from the dressing table and shatter against the floor. The remaining closet door slams open as scripture floods the room, moving too quickly for me to follow.
Then the words begin to form.
She has been wronged.
My jaw locks harder.
"Yeah. I noticed."
The Flame snaps across the room.
She has been erased.
Another laugh catches in my throat, harsher than the first. The mirror cracks again, splitting the reflection into smaller pieces.
"Apparently."
Then the final words appear.
He was supposed to know better.
I stop moving.
So does the Flame.
The sudden silence hits harder than the destruction.
I stare at the words while the anger inside me changes. The fury remains, but something underneath it hurts enough that I have to look away.
"He did know better."
My voice comes out quieter than I want.
The Flame trembles.
My hands curl into fists again as I look at the bed, the dressing table, the clothes, all the small pieces of a life that continued without me.
"He just did it anyway."
Gold detonates through the room.
The windows rattle. The broken mirror finally gives way, and the remaining glass crashes to the floor. Flame tears through the inscriptions as another message forces itself into existence.
It was never meant to be her.
My fury falters.
I stare at the words.
I didn't say that.
The Flame draws inward around me, still furious, still restless, but the glyphs remain exactly where they are.
It was never meant to be her.
This time, I understand what unsettles me.
The words came from the Scripture.
The door crashes open, and Seth steps through before it finishes striking the wall.
He stops.
His eyes move across the room, taking in the broken mirror, the closet door hanging from one hinge and the clothes scattered across the floor. Golden traces still spread through the plaster where my fist struck the wall, fading slowly as the Flame withdraws from them.
Then he looks at me.
Whatever he sees changes his expression.
I can feel the heat behind my eyes, the ache in my chest and the fury still moving beneath my skin. The Flame circles close to my body, restless enough to strike again, but Seth barely looks at it.
He looks at me.
"Max."
"Don't come near me."
He takes a step anyway, and the Flame whips towards him. Gold cuts through the space between us and strikes the floor at his feet.
"Seth, I mean it."
He stops this time. His eyes search mine while silver gathers faintly around his next breath.
"You're hurting."
A tear slips down my cheek, and I wipe it away with the back of my hand. "Brilliant observation."
The Flame pulses hard enough to send a tremor through the broken mirror.
Seth's face tightens.
Another tear follows the first, and anger rises because I cannot stop it. "He hurt me."
Seth draws in a breath.
"He moved on." My voice breaks around the words. "He actually moved on."
The Flame surges, and silver bursts from Seth with his exhale.
I expect the Breath to spread through the room in the currents I have seen before. Instead, it sharpens.
Long silver blades form around him, one after another, their surfaces bright with inscriptions. They rise between us as words begin appearing across the first.
I will carry what breaks you.
My chest tightens at the sight of them. "Please don't."
Another blade takes shape beside it.
I will hold the fury that scars you.
The Flame lashes out.
Gold strikes the nearest blade, sending silver light racing along its surface. Seth jerks as though the blow landed against him instead.
I stare at him. "You felt that."
His silence gives me the answer.
Another wave of pain moves through me, and the Flame reacts before I can contain it. Gold crashes against two of the blades at once. Seth's shoulders tense, and his eyes close for a second before he looks at me again.
A third vow appears.
Let your grief strike me instead.
"Why are you doing this?"
"Because I can feel you."
The answer tears through whatever anger has been keeping me upright.
My face crumples, and I turn away from him as more tears come. "Then make it stop."
"I can't."
"Why did he move on?" I look back at Seth, desperate enough to ask him a question he could never answer. "Why couldn't he wait for me?"
Seth starts towards me again.
"I came back." My voice cracks harder. "I came back, Seth."
"I know."
"Then why wasn't that enough?"
The question hangs between us, and I hate how small it makes me feel. My eyes move towards the clothes scattered across the floor, and suddenly I see everything they represent. Someone else woke up here. Someone else slept in my bed and filled my closet and stood where I used to stand.
"What did I do wrong?"
Seth reaches me and shakes his head. "Nothing."
"Then why?"
"I don't know."
"At least lie to me."
"I won't do that."
A sob catches in my throat, and I shove both hands into my hair as though I can somehow hold myself together. "I loved him."
Seth's eyes close briefly.
"I still love him."
The admission sends another surge through the Flame. Gold strikes the Covenant Blades, and Seth bends beneath the force before straightening again.
He is feeling it.
Every part of it.
"Stop doing that." I reach for one of the blades, but Seth catches my hand before I touch it. "Stop feeling this with me."
"I can't."
"Yes, you can."
His fingers tighten around mine. "I can't, Max."
Something in his voice makes me look at him properly.
Pain fills his eyes. It is different from mine, quieter and older, but it is there.
"I couldn't then, either."
I don't understand what he means. Right now, I barely understand myself.
My gaze drops to our hands. "Why can't I keep love?"
Seth becomes very still.
The question hurts the moment I hear myself say it, but I cannot take it back. "What is it about me? People love me, and then somehow I lose them. Maybe I'm..." My voice fails before I can finish.
Seth's other hand closes gently around mine.
"You always had mine, Max."
I look up at him.
His eyes are wet now, and for once Seth makes no attempt to hide whatever lives behind them.
"You always will."
I shake my head because I don't understand why he would say that as though it began long before the day I met him. "Seth, I don't remember you."
"I know."
The answer carries no accusation.
That hurts too.
The Flame draws closer to us as Seth pulls me against him, and this time I let him. My hands grip the front of his shirt as the first sob breaks free. His arms tighten around me, holding me while the Covenant Blades brighten behind him.
I will carry what breaks you.
My fingers tighten against his shirt as another sob shakes through me.
I will hold the fury that scars you.
Silver travels along the blades when the Flame strikes them again, and Seth's body tenses around mine.
Let your grief strike me instead.
"I don't want this," I manage against his chest. "I want my life back."
"I know."
"I want him back."
Seth goes quiet.
For the smallest moment, I feel his arms tighten around me.
Then he says, "I know."
He doesn't tell me to forget Eric. He doesn't tell me that Eric never deserved me, or that I should stop loving someone who apparently stopped waiting for me.
Seth simply holds me while I cry for someone else.
Then I see the photograph.
It sits on the dressing table behind him, partly hidden among bottles and brushes. I pull away so quickly that Seth's arms fall from me.
"Max?"
I move towards it.
Eric smiles back at me from behind the glass.
A woman stands beside him, close enough that I don't need anyone to explain what she means. Between them is a little child, perhaps three years old, laughing at whoever took the photograph.
The toy downstairs flashes through my mind.
Then the little shoe beside the door.
My hand begins to shake.
"He has a child."
Seth comes closer but says nothing.
I stare at the little face in the photograph. "Is that his?"
Seth cannot answer me, and the silence makes the question worse.
"He has a family."
My thumb presses against the glass as the last pieces fall into place. The bedroom, the clothes, the toys downstairs and the life that somehow grew inside my home while I was gone all lead back to the smiling faces in my hand.
Five years.
We were gone for five years.
"He made a whole life without me."
The words come out through another sob.
My fingers lose their grip on the frame. It falls, but I never hear it hit the floor because Seth catches me as my legs finally give way.
I grab his shirt and bury my face against his chest.
"I thought he would wait."
Seth's hand moves into my hair while his other arm holds me against him.
"I know."
"I would have waited for him."
His chest rises beneath my cheek.
"I know, Max."
I don't know how long Seth holds me.
Long enough for my tears to slow. Long enough for my hands to loosen against his shirt. The pain remains exactly where it was, but I can breathe around it again.
Seth's hand stops moving through my hair.
His entire body stiffens.
His hand stops moving through my hair, and his entire body stiffens.
Silver flickers along his arms.
I feel the change before he says anything. His Breath pulls away from the room and stretches towards something beyond it, as though another current has caught its attention.
Seth eases back enough to look at me.
"They're at the Obsidian Forum."
My mind takes a second to catch up. "Who?"
"The others." His eyes lose the softness they held moments ago. "Something's happening."
I wipe my face with both hands. "How bad?"
Seth glances towards the door. "Bad enough that we're already late."
Of course we are.
I look around the ruined bedroom and almost laugh at the absurdity of it, but nothing comes. Ten minutes ago, I thought I was coming home. Now Eric has a family, my bedroom belongs to someone else, and apparently our friends are walking into another disaster.
"I can't go like this."
"You can," Seth says. "You just shouldn't."
I look at him.
He points towards the bathroom. "Wash your face. I'll wait."
My gaze drops to the photograph on the floor.
Seth follows it.
"I don't know how to walk out of this room and pretend I'm fine."
His expression softens again. "Then don't pretend."
I swallow against the pressure returning to my throat.
"They need Max," he continues. "They don't need you to stop hurting first."
For some reason, that helps.
I head towards the bathroom, then stop at the doorway and look back. Seth remains among the damage, silver still moving faintly around his arms.
"I'm still angry."
"I would be concerned if you weren't."
A small sound escapes me that almost becomes a laugh.
Almost.
I leave the bathroom door partly open.
Maybe I need to know Seth is still there. Maybe closing it would make the room feel too much like mine again when it clearly isn't.
Cold water does little for swollen eyes.
I splash my face again and grip the edge of the basin while water runs from my chin. Eric's photograph keeps returning to me. His smile. The woman beside him. Their child between them.
Why did he move on?
I close my eyes.
The question still has no answer.
Movement beyond the bathroom catches my attention.
Through the narrow opening, I see Seth standing beside the damaged wall. He runs his fingers over the faint golden trace my Flame left behind, and silver Breath follows his hand.
The gold responds.
It lifts slowly from the plaster and curls into the silver around his fingers. Seth watches it for a moment before letting his Breath carry it away from the wall.
The damage remains.
He cannot undo what I did.
For some reason, I'm glad.
He moves to the closet next and lifts the broken door. Silver curls around the hinges while he works it back into place. The wood remains cracked, the mirror remains broken and several bottles still lie shattered across the floor, but he clears a path through the worst of it.
He isn't erasing what happened.
He is making sure I don't have to walk back through the wreckage.
I lower my head and let the water run over my hands.
When I look into the bathroom mirror, golden inscriptions still move faintly beneath my skin. Their fury has weakened, although they remain awake.
So does the pain.
I straighten.
It will have to come with me.
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By the time Seth's car stops outside the Obsidian Forum, my eyes still feel raw and my chest aches whenever my thoughts drift towards Eric. I push it aside as I step from the car, because whatever waits inside clearly has no intention of giving me time to fall apart.
Pressure hits before I make it two steps, stopping me mid-stride as Seth freezes beside me.
"What is that?"
"I don't know."
His answer worries me more than I want it to.
The pressure surges, slamming us back against the car as it bears down from every direction. Breathing becomes difficult, and I reach for Seth without thinking as his hand finds mine.
The Living Scripture reacts immediately. Gold races across my arm and strikes against the pressure, only to recoil as the force pushes back.
Seth exhales sharply, sending silver Breath across his arms towards my gold. Both powers twist together between us while the pressure tightens enough to make the car groan behind our backs.
"This isn't natural," I manage.
Seth keeps his gaze on the Forum. "Definitely not."
Another wave hits, but my inscriptions flare and spread through the air before it can drive us back again. Seth's Breath winds between the golden lines, strengthening them until we have enough room to move.
I force myself forward with Seth beside me, his hand still holding mine as the pressure fights every step.
"What exactly are we walking into?"
"I was hoping you knew."
"That was also my plan."
The corner of his mouth twitches before the pressure suddenly changes.
My Living Scripture reacts immediately. The force has stopped simply pushing against the gold and now seems to be responding to it, making the inscriptions brighten across my skin.
Seth's silver Breath surges between them, and the pressure fractures around us.
I drag in a breath and stare at the gold and silver still moving together. "What did we just do?"
Seth studies them for a moment. "I have absolutely no idea."
That sounds considerably more appropriate for our lives.
Before either of us can move, a new force strikes from inside the Forum. The air buckles, gold and silver flare together, and the ground shifts beneath my feet.
My next step never reaches the pavement.
Instead, my boot lands on polished stone.
I stop so suddenly that Seth nearly collides with me. His hand is still locked around mine, but the car has vanished behind us, along with the entrance and the open air.
The Obsidian Forum surrounds us.
I turn sharply, expecting to see the doorway we somehow crossed, but there is only the vast interior of the hall.
"How did we...?"
Seth doesn't answer.
His grip tightens.
I follow his gaze.
Bodies fill the grand hall in tightly packed rows beneath the high ceiling. At first, the number of people is what catches me. Then I realize what is wrong with them.
Nobody speaks or shifts position. Heads remain fixed. Hands hang at their sides. Even the smallest movements of breathing seem absent.
I search the nearest faces as the last trace of warmth leaves my skin.
The people filling the Forum look as though someone stopped them in the middle of living. Fingers remain curled around clothing and chair backs, mouths hang open around words that never finished, and several faces are trapped in expressions of fear. The silence feels wrong among so many bodies. Hundreds of people should create noise simply by breathing or shifting, yet the hall gives me nothing.
Seth moves closer as my attention reaches the center of the Apex, where a figure dressed in obsidian stands among the motionless crowd. His robes shift despite the still air, while shadows coil around his feet and crawl across the polished floor. A hood conceals most of his face, leaving only the curve of a smile beneath it.
"He was expecting us," I whisper as the smile grows.
"I know." Seth's hand closes around my shoulder. "I think he's disappointed we took so long."
Under any other circumstances, I might appreciate the sarcasm. Right now, the man standing among hundreds of trapped people has all of my attention. He makes no attempt to approach, allowing the shadows to spread while he watches us.
The Living Scripture responds first. Golden inscriptions race across my arms and rise in widening currents as Seth exhales behind me, sending silver Breath towards the gold.
The moment they touch, the Flame curves around Seth's Breath while silver threads between the inscriptions. They find the same rhythm almost immediately, circling in distinct currents as the connection travels back through me.
I place my hand over Seth's.
Gold surges outward with silver woven through it, racing across the polished floor in a widening wave. Golden inscriptions flash beneath motionless feet while Seth's Breath moves between the trapped bodies, searching through the force holding them.
The man in obsidian finally reacts.
His head lifts as darkness surges from beneath his robes and rushes towards us. Our combined power meets it halfway across the Apex, and the impact shakes the Forum hard enough to send chairs scraping across the floor.
Gold continues spreading through the hall with silver moving between every line. The shadows wrapped around the crowd begin to loosen beneath their approach, pulling away from arms, legs and frightened faces.
A gasp breaks through the silence.
Another person coughs nearby, and then the Forum seems to inhale all at once. Bodies jerk back into motion as people stumble against one another, reaching instinctively for chairs and shoulders while frightened voices rise around us.
Seth's fingers tighten beneath mine. "We broke whatever was holding them."
"Only part of it." My attention remains on the figure at the center of the Apex.
His smile has disappeared.
The darkness has drawn closer around him, gathering against his robes instead of spreading across the floor. For the first time since we arrived, his attention shifts away from us.
I follow his gaze.
Everything inside me stops.
A body lies near the edge of the Apex, crumpled against the polished stone with blood darkening his clothes.
I know him before I see his face.
"Alec!"
My hand tears from Seth's as I run. Golden inscriptions flash beneath my feet, carrying me across the Forum in sudden bursts until I drop beside him.
Blood streaks his face, his clothes are torn, and one arm lies at an angle that turns my stomach. I reach for his hand, terrified of hurting him anywhere else.
"Alec, can you hear me?"
His eyes remain closed, but his hand is warm inside mine.
"Come on, Alec. Please open your eyes."
Seth reaches us and kneels beside me, sending silver Breath over Alec with a careful exhale. I barely notice what it does because every version of Alec I have known seems to collide with the man lying here. The four-year-old beside me, the boy Master Dan helped raise, and the man who followed me into every impossible situation are all bleeding on the floor.
This was never supposed to happen.
I did everything Heaven asked of me because somewhere along the way, I convinced myself that carrying their burden meant the people I loved would be protected.
"He wasn't supposed to get hurt."
Seth glances towards me as I brush the blood from Alec's cheek. "Max, stay with him."
"I did everything they wanted." My voice shakes as the inscriptions quicken beneath my skin. "I thought if I carried this, they would protect the people I loved."
Seth watches the gold spreading along my arms. "Keep your attention on Alec."
My eyes lift towards the ceiling before I can stop myself. "Where were they when this happened?"
Heaven gives me nothing.
The Flame moves beneath my skin as fear turns towards anger. "What was the point of any of it if they can still end up like this?"
Gold spills from my wrists and races across the floor, but Seth catches my arm before the Flame can follow.
"He needs you more than your anger does."
I look down at Alec again.
His fingers move inside mine.
My breath catches as I lean closer, searching his face. "I'm here, Alec. I'm right here."
His eyes remain closed, but his fingers curl weakly around mine.
Relief rushes through me as I hold on tighter.
"He's alive."
"Yes, he is." Seth releases my arm but stays beside me, his silver Breath continuing to move carefully around Alec. "Keep talking to him."
I nod and brush the hair away from Alec's forehead. "You hear that? You're stuck with me."
His fingers move again.
A broken smile pulls at my mouth despite the tears on my face. "That's better."
Footsteps cross the Apex behind us.
Slow enough to be intentional.
My smile disappears.
Seth rises first.
I remain beside Alec, one hand still wrapped around his while the other presses against the floor. Golden inscriptions spread beneath my palm as the footsteps draw closer.
The man in obsidian walks towards us through the remnants of his own darkness. Hundreds of people have escaped whatever held them, yet he shows no urgency. His attention moves over Seth before dropping towards Alec.
Then he looks at me.
The smile returns.
My hand tightens around Alec's.
Seth steps between us, silver Breath gathering around him with his next exhale. I rise slowly beside Alec while the Living Scripture spreads across my arms, carrying the fury I no longer have any reason to contain.
The man stops several meters away and looks down at Alec again.
The Flame reacts.
Seth feels the change and glances towards me, but I cannot take my eyes from the man who left Alec bleeding on the floor.
His smile deepens.
Then the air around us fractures.
The Living Scripture rises from my skin before the man in obsidian makes another move, flooding my arms with gold before the inscriptions sweep upwards and gather above the Apex. They turn around one another until their separate shapes begin locking together, building a vast glyph that shifts with every new symbol joining it.
Beside me, Seth draws a slow breath and releases a stream of silver that rises towards the gold. His eyes brighten at the same moment, revealing ancient symbols within the blue of his irises.
El-Rah. Zun-Ra. Tha-Um. Yumir. Qey-Tar.
I know those markings because they belong to the Living Scripture, yet seeing them reflected within Seth sends a strange awareness through the connection between us. The ocean blue of his eyes gives way to silver as the symbols brighten within them, each marking becoming clearer beneath the glow. His Breath reaches towards the enormous glyph above us, and the gold responds immediately, opening around the silver before drawing it deeper.
Both powers begin moving in the same rhythm.
The man in obsidian watches the transformation without losing the smile that has irritated me since the moment we arrived. Even after losing his hold over the Forum, he stands there as though everything happening around him remains part of some private joke.
I want that smile gone.
Seth raises his hand beside me, and his Breath tightens around the golden inscriptions. My arm follows as the Living Scripture responds, drawing both powers towards the glyph above the Apex.
The man moves first.
He crosses the distance too quickly for my eyes to follow, one moment beneath the glyph and the next reaching for me.
Seth catches my wrist.
He turns with the movement, pulling me through a sharp half-circle behind him as his free hand rises. Silver mist gathers across his palm before he drives it into the man's chest.
The impact lands with a deep crack.
Silver bursts across the obsidian robes, throwing the man backwards. His boots tear across the polished stone before he finally stops several meters away.
I am already moving.
Gold flashes along my arms as I close the distance and drive my forearm across his reaching arm, knocking it aside before striking my palm into his chest. The Living Scripture follows the contact, golden inscriptions spreading across the obsidian fabric as he staggers back.
His smile disappears.
Seth reaches my side as the man lunges again. I shift away from the first strike while Seth catches the second, turning the man's arm past us rather than meeting his strength directly. Silver Breath follows Seth's movement and coils around the man's wrist.
I understand before Seth says anything.
My hand sweeps through the gold beside me, sending the inscriptions around the man's other arm. Seth exhales, silver races through them, and both currents tighten.
Chains form.
The man jerks against them as gold and silver pull his arms towards his body. Shadows surge from beneath his robes, but the glyph above us descends and closes around the darkness before it can spread.
For the first time, strain reaches his face.
A command forms inside me with such certainty that my attention snaps towards Seth. His expression changes at the same moment.
He heard it too.
We raise our hands together.
"Bind him."
Gold and silver contract.
The man's knees buckle, sending him hard against the Apex as the remaining darkness tears from his robes and scatters across the polished floor. The crowd recoils from the impact, frightened voices rising as people scramble farther away.
A strained sound comes from behind me.
Alec.
I turn and find his body jerking against the floor.
"Alec, stay with me!"
I reach him and drop beside him as his breathing turns shallow. The hand that moved inside mine moments ago now lies still, and the remaining color is draining from his face.
Seth kneels beside me and immediately checks his neck. Silver Breath leaves him with a careful exhale, moving across Alec's chest as Seth's expression changes.
"What is happening to him?"
"His injuries are worse than I realized."
"Then we have to fix it." I place my hands over Alec before looking at Seth. "Please help me save him."
Seth moves immediately, placing one hand beside mine as silver mist gathers across his palm.
Gold answers beneath my hands.
The same powers that struck and bound the man moments ago move differently now. Silver spreads beneath Seth's palm in slow currents while golden inscriptions follow my fingers across Alec's chest. Where one moves, the other adjusts, working around his injuries with a care neither Seth nor I seem to be controlling.
Alec's breathing weakens beneath my hands.
"Alec, you need to breathe for me."
Seth shifts his palm, and the silver follows the movement. I instinctively do the same, guiding the gold towards it until Flame and Breath gather over Alec's chest.
Then he stops breathing.
Panic surges through me. "Come on, Alec. You have survived far too much to leave me now." Tears fall onto my hands as I lean closer. "You still owe me years of irritation, and I am absolutely telling Master Dan if you try getting out of it."
Seth presses his hand firmly over mine.
Silver gathers around his fingers.
Gold gathers beneath mine.
Together, we push.
Silver and gold surge together, spilling between our hands before sweeping across Alec's chest in a bright pulse.
His body jolts beneath my palms, and he drags air into his lungs.
Relief folds me forward as another breath fills Alec's lungs. His eyelids flutter open, and I brush the blood from his cheek as tears slip down mine.
"There you are. You scared the life out of me."
His mouth moves, but whatever he tries to say never reaches me.
"You can insult me when you have enough energy to make it worthwhile."
His eyes close again, though his breathing continues beneath the fading gold and silver.
Seth rests a hand between my shoulder blades. "He's still with us, Max."
I nod and keep hold of Alec's hand.
Then a child's voice cuts through the Forum.
"Daddy!"
The word stops me more completely than any force we faced outside.
Small shoes slap against the marble behind us in quick, uneven steps, and I turn towards the sound as a little boy runs across the Forum. Golden curls bounce around his face while he searches the crowd with the same excitement, I saw frozen inside the photograph upstairs.
I know him immediately.
My breath catches when the blonde woman appears behind him.
She is the woman from the photograph.
She follows the child through the crowd until her attention lands somewhere beyond us, and I already know where she is looking before I force myself to turn.
Eric stands across the Forum.
Then the little boy reaches him.
He bends instinctively and catches the child as those tiny arms wrap around his neck. The woman stops several steps behind them, and the tenderness in her face tells me more than the photograph ever could.
My relief disappears beneath the weight of everything I understood in my bedroom.
The woman looks towards me.
Her expression changes.
She knows who I am.
Eric notices and follows her gaze across the Forum until his eyes finally meet mine. The color drains from his face as he carefully lowers the little boy to the floor.
"Max."
Hearing my name in his voice hurts more than I expected.
He takes a step towards me. "Max, please wait."
I stare at him while every piece of evidence from the house returns at once. The photograph was real. The unfamiliar clothes belonged to someone. The little shoe beside my door belonged to a child who has just crossed the Forum and called Eric Daddy.
Five years happened while I was gone.
Eric takes another step. "Please let me explain."
I want to ask him the same question that followed me from the bedroom.
Why didn't you wait for me?
The words refuse to leave my throat.
Golden inscriptions begin moving slowly across my skin, but the anger that drove them earlier never comes. Instead, exhaustion spreads through me until even standing here feels like another burden I have somehow been asked to carry.
Seth rises beside me and moves close enough that his shoulder brushes mine. He makes no attempt to threaten Eric or place himself between us, and he doesn't ask what I need when the answer is already written across my face.
His hand reaches for mine.
I hold it tightly.
Eric sees our joined hands, and pain crosses his face before he takes another cautious step towards me.
"Max, please."
I look down at Alec, whose chest continues rising beneath the fading traces of gold and silver. Then my attention returns to the little boy beside Eric and the woman waiting several steps behind him.
Whatever anger I expected to feel has disappeared.
That frightens me more than the Flame ever has, because there is nothing left beneath it except exhaustion.
"Seth, please take me away from here."
His fingers close more firmly around mine. "I'm taking you home."
Silver Breath gathers around us with his next exhale.
Eric suddenly moves towards me. "Max, please don't leave!"
I meet his eyes one final time.
Then the Forum disappears.
-----------------------------------------------
Max returned to a world that moved on without her, only to discover some wounds were still waiting.
Alec survived. Eric has explaining to do. And Seth?
He stayed.
Thank you for reading.
Chapter 22 is coming.