"He's in the healing wing. The poison has been neutralized, but he hasn't woken yet. The healers say it could go either way."
Either way. Meaning he might die.
Lin Yu's hands clenched. "Can I see him?"
"Lord Ember would have to grant permission."
"Of course he would," Lin Yu sighed. "Thank you, Cinder. For telling me."
She bowed and left quickly, as if afraid she'd said too much.
Lin Yu stared at the feast on the cart—roasted meats, fresh fruits, bread that smelled like heaven. His stomach growled. He hadn't eaten since... whenever "before" was. Before he'd woken up in a cage. Before his life had turned into his own poorly-planned novel.
Kaelen might die. That was bad for multiple reasons.Kaelen died, Lin Yu lost whatever small advantage the "true mate" thing might give him. Not that he planned to exploit that, but in a world where he was considered valuable breeding stock, any protection was worth keeping.
Ember clearly wanted something from him. Information, probably. About how he knew things he shouldn't know.
And the auction house wouldn't give up. They'd send more guards.
Lin Yu needed allies. Real ones, not captors masquerading as saviors.
He needed—
A sound interrupted his thoughts. A whisper, barely audible, coming from... the walls?
Lin Yu stood, following the sound. It led him to what looked like a decorative panel, but when he pressed his ear against it, he could hear voices.
"—absolute madness. Harboring the Exiled General—"
"The Prince knows what he's doing—"
"Does he? Or is he just bored again? Remember the last 'interesting' project?"
"This is different. A breeding male who's a true mate? The political implications alone—"
"If the Wolf Tribes find out we're sheltering Kaelen, they'll demand his execution. Treaty or no treaty."
"Let them demand. We're phoenixes. We don't bow to wolves."
The voices faded as whoever was speaking moved away.
Lin Yu pulled back from the wall, mind spinning. The Wolf Tribes wanting Kaelen dead. Ember collecting "projects."
He was in so much trouble.
A different sound made him turn—a soft tapping at the window. Lin Yu approached cautiously.
A bird perched outside. Not a phoenix, just a normal sparrow, but it was tapping its beak against the glass in a distinctly non-bird-like pattern.
Tap tap. Tap. Tap tap tap.
Lin Yu frowned. That pattern was... familiar. Like morse code, almost, but not quite. More like—
His blood ran cold.
It was the secret code he'd created for the rebel network in his novel. The group that opposed the clan system and helped escaped breeding males.
He'd written exactly three scenes with them before getting bored and abandoning that subplot.
Someone was using his own code. Someone who shouldn't know it existed.
Lin Yu opened the window carefully. The sparrow hopped onto his palm, and he felt something attached to its leg—a tiny scroll, barely bigger than his thumb.
He unrolled it with shaking hands.
We know what you are. Not what Ember thinks—what you REALLY are. Meet us at the East Bridge at midnight. Come alone. We can help you get home.
No signature.
or how they could possibly help him "get home" when home was a different reality entirely.
It could be a trap. Probably was a trap.
But.
We can help you get home.
Lin Yu looked at the message, at the bird, at the luxurious prison he'd been placed in.
Outside, a bell chimed.
One hour until midnight.
"This is stupid," Lin Yu told himself.
He looked at the wardrobe full of clothes, at the door Ember had left unlocked (because where could he go?), at the windows that showed the deadly drop and the bridges that would supposedly reject him.
"I'm going to die," he muttered
But he started changing into darker clothes anyway.
Because curiosity had always been his fatal flaw as a writer.
And apparently, it was going to be his fatal flaw here too.
Fifty-five minutes later, Lin Yu crept through the palace corridors.
Getting out of his room had been easy. Getting through the halls without being seen was harder, but most of the phoenix clan seemed to be gathered in some kind of common area—he could hear laughter and conversation echoing from deeper in the palace.
The East Bridge was exactly where he remembered placing it in his outline: connecting the palace to the outer residential area, less traveled than the main bridges.
Lin Yu stood at the bridge's edge, staring at the span of solidified flame. It looked solid. It looked safe.
But Ember had said the bridges rejected non-phoenix clan members.
"Only one way to find out," Lin Yu whispered.
He stepped onto the bridge.
Nothing happened.
Lin Yu took another step. Then another. The bridge held firm beneath his feet.
"Huh," he said. "Either Ember lied, or—"
The bridge flared brilliant orange.
"—or I'm about to die."
But he didn't fall. Instead, the flames seemed to... recognize him? The light pulsed once, then settled, and the bridge solidified completely under his feet.
Lin Yu's didn't have the time to process what happened, his only thoughts were to get away from here.
He ran.
The East Bridge led to a small plaza surrounded by residential buildings. At this hour, it was empty except for—
A figure in a dark cloak stepped from the shadows.
"You came," a male voice said.
"I wasn't sure you would."
"Who are you?" Lin Yu demanded. "How do you know about me?"
The figure pulled back his hood, revealing a young man with plain features and brown hair.
"My name is Wei," he said. "And I know about you because I'm the same as you."
"The same as...?"
Wei smiled sadly. "I'm not from this world either, Lin Yu. I transmigrated here two years ago."
Lin Yu's world tilted.
"You're—you're from—"
"Earth? Yes." Wei glanced around nervously. "We can't talk here. It's not safe. Come with me, and I'll explain everything. How I got here, why the story is breaking, and—" He hesitated. "And why you're the only one who can fix it."
"Fix what?"
"The world," Wei said simply. "It's collapsing. And unless we figure out how to repair the narrative structure, everyone here—everyone—is going to cease to exist."
Behind them, a shout echoed across the plaza.
"There! The breeding male! He's escaping!"
Phoenix guards were pouring onto the bridge, and leading them—
Ember.
His expression was cold fury.
"Run," Wei urged, grabbing Lin Yu's arm. "Now!"
They ran into the narrow streets between buildings, guards shouting behind them. Lin Yu's heart hammered.
This was nothing like writing an escape scene—there was no convenient deus ex machina, no guaranteed survival.
Wei pulled him into an alley, then through a hidden door, down stairs.
"Where are we going?" Lin Yu gasped.
"Somewhere safe. Somewhere even the Phoenix Prince can't reach."
They burst into an underground chamber,and Lin Yu's eyes widened with shock.
Because sitting in the center of the room, very much awake and very much glowing with silver light, was Kaelen.
The wolf general's eyes locked onto Lin Yu.
"Mate," Kaelen growled. "Mine."
"Oh fuck," Lin Yu whispered.
"Yeah," Wei agreed. "We need to talk. Like, right now."
Above them, the sound of guards searching grew closer.
And Lin Yu realized that escaping one prison had just landed him into more complicated situation.
Lin Yu's brain had officially given up on processing reality.
There was Kaelen, the wolf general who should have been unconscious in a healing wing, now very much awake.
There was Wei, a fellow transmigrator who apparently knew things he absolutely shouldn't. And there was Lin Yu, trapped underground while phoenix guards searched overhead.
"Okay," Lin Yu said"Okay. I need everyone to just—stop. Stop whatever this is."
Kaelen took a step forward. "You saved my life."
"Yes, well, you're welcome, please don't—"
"You bear my scent now." Kaelen's eyes were doing that silver-glow thing that probably meant something important in wolf culture. "And I bear yours. The mate bond has begun."
"The what has WHAT?"
Wei pinched the bridge of his nose. "I should have explained before bringing you here. General, You're going to give him a panic attack."
"He's my mate," Kaelen said, as if this explained everything. "I can smell it."
"That's great, super romantic, but maybe we could focus on the part where I'M FROM ANOTHER WORLD," Lin Yu said.
Kaelen's glowing eyes narrowed. "What?"
"He's a transmigrator," Wei explained. "Like me. He's not actually from the beast world—he's from Earth. And unless I'm very wrong—" He turned to Lin Yu. "You created this world, didn't you? You're the author."
Lin Yu's mouth opened. Closed. Opened again. "How did you—"
"Because things you wrote keep happening," Wei said. "Things that weren't in the original story. The Moonlight Serpents? I've been here two years, and they didn't exist until you showed up. The bridges recognizing you? Phoenix clan bridges don't work that way—except now they do. The world is rewriting itself around you."
"That's impossible."
"Says the man who transmigrated into his own novel," Wei pointed out. "Look, I don't understand the mechanics either, but I've been tracking the changes. Every time you do something, every decision you make, the world... adjusts. It's like the story is trying to accommodate you."
"That doesn't make sense. Stories don't just change themselves—" Lin Yu cut off. "Wait. You said you've been here two years. What story did YOU come from?"
Wei's expression turned complicated. "That's the thing. I didn't come from a story. I just... woke up here one day. No memories of how I got here, just knowledge of Earth"
"I've spent two years trying to figure out why. And then you show up, and suddenly everything starts making sense."
"Nothing about this makes sense!"
"Could someone," Kaelen interrupted, voice low and dangerous, "explain what a 'transmigrator' is? In small words. Because my mate appears to be having some kind of crisis, and I don't understand why."
Lin Yu's laughed
"A transmigrator is someone who dies—or falls asleep, apparently—in one world and wakes up in another. Usually in a story they read or wrote. It's a common trope in web novels."
"Web novels?"
"Stories. Entertainment. Fiction." Lin Yu gestured helplessly. "This entire world? I created it. I wrote it. You're all characters in a story I was writing."
Kaelen stared at him for a long moment. Then: "That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard."
"Excuse me?"
"I'm not a 'character.' I'm a person. I have memories, thoughts, feelings. My pack was slaughtered by the Wolf King because I refused to execute prisoners. I've spent three years in exile, hunted, alone. Those experiences are real. I'm real."
Lin Yu felt something twist in his chest. Because Kaelen was right—he DID seem real. They all did. But—
"I wrote your backstory," Lin Yu said quietly. "The massacre. The exile. The reason the Wolf King wants you dead. I created all of it."
"Then you have a remarkable imagination," Kaelen said. "But that doesn't make me any less real."
"He's right," Wei interjected. "I've been thinking about this a lot. Maybe you wrote the story, but writing something and creating a living world are different things. Maybe you tapped into something that already existed. Maybe the act of writing opened a door." He shrugged. "Or maybe none of that matters. Because right now, we're all here, we're all real, and we have bigger problems."
"Such as?" Lin Yu asked.
"Such as the world is collapsing."
That got both Lin Yu's and Kaelen's attention.