Six days.
The number hung between them. Seraphina watched Caelan process it. His tactical mind already calculating. Two more anchor points. The gala in three days. Then the assault.
"How certain?" His voice stayed level.
"Certain." The Grove's visions didn't lie about violence. "I saw the cities burning. Felt the timing in my bones."
Caelan went quiet. When he spoke, his words carried something heavy. "There's something I haven't told you about the Grove."
"What?"
"I've been there before. Years ago." His hand moved to his temple. "My northern border command stumbled across it chasing demons."
Her blood chilled. "What happened?"
"We stumbled in chasing demons. Trees that breathed. Bark like water." He paused. "We were inside minutes. Outside, three days. Horses nearly dead."
His jaw set. "That wasn't the worst part."
"What was?"
"We turned on each other by nightfall."
The implications hit her. "Paranoia?"
"Veteran soldiers who'd saved each other's lives. Suddenly convinced their closest comrades were plotting betrayal." His jaw tightened. "I watched my best lieutenant try to murder his own brother. He was certain the man was planning to sell our position to demons."
"How many survived?"
"Half. Maybe less." Each word came out bitter. "Not because demons killed them. Because we killed each other. The Grove doesn't destroy you directly. It makes you destroy everything that might save you."
She reached for him. He stepped back.
"I can feel it starting. The whispers. The doubts." His words came rough. "It's trying to convince me you're manipulating me. That you're keeping me from power the Grove is offering. But..."
He studied her face in moonlight. "I can see the lies for what they are. Whatever bond we have, it's stronger than Grove manipulation."
"The Grove marks people," he continued, breath steadying. "Not scars. Not physical damage. It plants seeds that grow into isolation. Makes you believe everyone who claims to care is actually your greatest threat. But it's not working on us."
"Because we've already been through real betrayal," she said. "We know what manipulation feels like."
"Exactly. This is just noise. Trying to copy something we've both survived."
Something shifted in her chest. Relief. Not just that he could resist the Grove's influence. Their connection had grown strong enough to serve as armor against supernatural manipulation.
"Two more anchors," she said. "Can you hold it off that long?"
"Long enough." He moved closer. "We finish this. Together."
The third anchor lay deeper in contested territory. They moved through woods where corruption had twisted everything wrong. Trees grew in spirals that hurt to look at. Shadows moved without light sources. The air felt thick and hostile.
The Grove's call intensified until Seraphina could barely think through the pressure behind her eyes.
"I won't make it through both remaining anchors." She leaned against an ancient oak. "The Grove's pull is too strong. I'm burning through power faster than I can regenerate it. And I'm running out of endurance potions."
"Then we do this differently." Caelan knelt beside the ritual stones. "What if I don't just anchor you? What if I help carry the magical load?"
"That's not how ward magic works"
"Maybe it is now." He looked up at her. "Our bond changed things during the healing ritual. Maybe it changed this too."
She wanted to argue. Exhaustion made her dizzy. "It could kill you if the backlash hits wrong."
"Six days, Seraphina. If we don't finish this, a lot more people die."
She looked at him kneeling beside the stones. Mask reflecting moonlight. Made her choice. "Together, then."
This time when she began the ritual, Caelan didn't just anchor her mind. He fed power directly into the ward structure. His wind magic weaving through her fire in ways that should have been impossible. The magic fought them at first. Two different elements trying to occupy the same space.
This is what partnership actually feels like. Not the performance she'd perfected with Alaric, but something that made her stronger instead of smaller.
Then it clicked.
Golden fire spiraled with silver wind. Creating something entirely new. The penultimate ward that formed was stronger than anything she'd managed alone. Sinking deeper into corrupted earth. Spreading farther across the contested lands.
The effort left them both gasping.
"One more," Caelan said, wiping blood from his nose. "Then we're done."
The heart-ward lay at the center of cleared territory. Where the worst fighting had happened. Where demon corruption ran deepest and the land itself still fought against healing efforts. The air tasted of sulfur and old death.
The Grove's assault came without warning.
The Grove's call became a roar that drove her to her knees. Overwhelming even Caelan's anchoring presence. He collapsed beside her. Whatever battle he was fighting with the Grove's attention suddenly beyond his ability to handle.
From the treeline, new enemies emerged.
Not demons. Animals. But wrong. Moving with unnatural coordination. Eyes reflecting Grove-light that shouldn't exist. A massive bear stepped forward. Followed by wolves whose movements held human intelligence. Ravens circled overhead in patterns that defied nature. Their cries harmonizing like a twisted choir.
"Grove's calling in everything it can control," Caelan breathed. Horror flooding his tone. These weren't enemies. They were victims. Creatures claimed by the same power that was pulling at both their minds.
Seraphina saw the recognition in his eyes. The way his hand hesitated on his sword hilt. "Caelan..."
"I know." The words carried quiet devastation. "They can't help what they're doing."
The bear charged first. Instead of meeting it with lethal steel, Caelan used wind magic to redirect its momentum. Sending it tumbling harmlessly into soft ferns. The wolves came next. He danced between them. Using precise gusts to knock them off balance without breaking bones.
Every movement was calculated restraint.
"I can't kill them," he said through gritted teeth as ravens dove at his mask. "They're not choosing this."
He's protecting them even when it makes the fight harder. The realization shifted something in her chest. When did I stop expecting people to choose compassion over convenience?
A wolf snapped at Seraphina's leg. She wanted to incinerate it. But the sight of intelligence trapped behind Grove-corrupted eyes stopped her. Instead, she used healing magic in reverse. Sending sleep through its nervous system.
It collapsed into peaceful unconsciousness.
We're fighting to save them, not defeat them. The distinction mattered more than she'd realized. When did battles become about protection instead of victory?
"The ward," Caelan called, deflecting a raven with the flat of his blade while wind magic held back three more wolves. "I can keep them occupied. But you have to finish this."
Last chance. Come now or watch everything you've fought for burn to ash.
"Finish the ward," he gasped. Blood running down his chin. "I'll hold whatever comes next."
Seraphina began the final ritual with hands that shook so badly she could barely hold the chalk. Blood smeared into the ancient grooves. Power flickering weak and uncertain. But it was enough. Barely, desperately enough.
The heart-ward snapped into place. Protective nets spread across all the cleared territory. Demon proof barriers that would hold against anything short of coordinated siege magic.
"Done." She fell backward into Caelan's arms. The world collapsed to narrow points of light. "The lands are protected. Whatever happens next, they can't take back what we won."
"Good." His breath came ragged but steady. Real. "We did it."
The Grove's presence retreated like a predator pulling back into shadow. Leaving behind only the quiet hum of completed wards. The corrupted animals collapsed where they stood. The unnatural intelligence fading from their eyes as they returned to natural sleep.
Around them, the forest began to breathe again.
But as dawn light crept through the trees, Seraphina's mind was already racing toward the gala. Three days to prepare for noble houses gathering in one place. Three days before six thousand demons descended on the realm, and no second chance if the wards failed.
Three days to figure out who else knows what's coming.