Rielun's POV:
The Haven's doorway swallowed us whole.
Light flared.
The floor shifted.
The air thickened like a held breath.
And then the world broke apart.
Stone walls slammed upward between us, cutting me off from Rowan's startled shout, Sylas's curse, Aeris's growl, and Noctis's wings snapping open in alarm.
"Rielun!" several voices echoed at once.
But the maze swallowed them.
Silence fell.
Except for one voice beside me.
"Rielun," Elias breathed, his hand still wrapped around my wrist. "Stay close."
The corridor stretched ahead — narrow, shifting, alive. The walls pulsed faintly with the same heartbeat‑like rhythm as the Haven.
Elias's grip tightened.
"This is a trial," he murmured. "It's responding to you."
"To me?" My voice shook.
"Yes." His eyes flicked to the walls. "And it's not subtle about it."
The corridor narrowed suddenly, forcing us shoulder‑to‑shoulder. Elias inhaled sharply, his composure cracking for the first time since I'd met him.
"Elias…?"
He didn't answer.
The maze lurched violently — and Elias moved on instinct.
He pushed me back.
My spine hit the smooth stone wall, and Elias's body pressed into mine, pinning me in place. His leg slid between mine, bracing me, holding me up as the floor trembled beneath us.
His hands planted on either side of my head, trembling.
"Don't—" His voice cracked. "Don't disappear on me."
My breath caught. "I'm not going anywhere."
"You could." His forehead dropped to mine, breath warm and uneven. "This place reacts to you. It pulls at you. And I—"
He swallowed hard.
"I can't lose you. Not here. Not again."
His thigh shifted slightly, tightening the space between us. My pulse jumped.
"Elias…" I whispered.
He finally looked at me.
And the look in his eyes wasn't calm.
It wasn't scholarly.
It wasn't composed.
It was raw.
Desperate.
Hungry in a way he didn't know how to hide.
"You make me lose control," he whispered, voice shaking. "I don't know how to be calm around you anymore."
His breath brushed my lips.
And then he kissed me.
Not soft.
Not tentative.
A long, intense, consuming kiss that stole the air from my lungs.
Elias kissed like a man who had been holding himself back for too long — like something inside him had finally cracked open. His hand slid up my back, pulling me closer, while his other hand cupped my jaw, thumb brushing my cheek as if he needed to feel every part of me.
His leg pressed more firmly between mine as he deepened the kiss, breath trembling against my mouth. The maze glowed around us, reacting to the surge of emotion, the truth of it.
Elias broke the kiss only to breathe — a sharp, shaky inhale — before his lips found mine again, slower this time, but no less intense. His forehead rested against mine between kisses, his breath unsteady.
"I shouldn't…" he whispered, voice breaking. "But gods, I can't stop."
His thumb brushed my lower lip, lingering there, trembling.
"You undo me," he breathed. "Completely."
The maze pulsed.
And then the walls shifted.
A soft glow formed behind Elias — a memory fragment blooming like a tear in the air.
Elias turned, still bracing me with one hand.
The fragment showed the First Guardian — alone, kneeling, shaking, hands buried in his hair as he whispered my name into the dark.
"Little Moon…"
"Come back…"
"Please…"
Elias's breath hitched.
"Rielun," he whispered, voice breaking. "He— he was shattered."
The memory flickered.
The Hollow's voice seeped through the maze walls.
"Little… one…"
The stone cracked.
Elias grabbed my hand.
"Run."
The maze roared to life around us as we sprinted into the shifting corridors, the Hollow breaking through behind us, the Haven pulling us forward.
And somewhere in the dark, the First Guardian's grief echoed like a heartbeat.