Elara POV
The world didn't disappear all at once.
It tore.
Light split across my vision like someone had cracked the sky open above us. My knees hit stone, but I didn't feel pain — only a heavy, crushing pressure inside my bones, like the sixteenth mark had sunk claws into my ribs.
I heard Kaelen shout my name.
I felt his hands on my arms — warm, desperate — but the light swallowed everything else. I couldn't breathe. Couldn't see. The air thinned around me like the world was trying to fold inward.
"Elara—stay with me—"
Kaelen's voice tangled with Mira's scream.
My name echoed twice.
Once in panic.
Once in fear.
I tried to speak, but the mark pulsed so violently that my vision shattered into white shards. The courtyard blurred. The cold bit my skin. Someone grabbed my waist to keep me upright.
Then—
The bond snapped wide open.
Not breaking.
Not healing.
Something else.
Something wild.
