Elara's POV
We crashed into an alley three streets away from the lighthouse. My legs gave out the second Zephyrion released me.
"That was—" I gasped for air. "—insane."
"That was necessary." He scanned the rooftops, eyes blazing silver. "The corrupted Guardians are tracking us. We have minutes before—"
A wall of golden lightning slammed down, blocking the alley's exit.
My blood turned to ice. I knew that magic signature. I'd felt it a thousand times during our engagement—warm, beautiful, and utterly fake.
Duke Aldric Sovras stepped through the golden barrier like he was entering a ballroom. His storm-caller robes billowed dramatically. Lightning danced around his hands like trained pets.
"Elara." His voice dripped false concern. "When they said you died in that field, I was devastated. But I knew—I just knew—you were too stubborn to die that easily."
"Get away from us," I said through clenched teeth.
"Us?" His gaze shifted to Zephyrion, and something hungry flashed in his eyes. "So the rumors are true. A Storm Guardian bound to a Guardian-Caller. Do you have any idea how valuable you are?"
Zephyrion moved between us, power crackling dangerously. "Touch her and I'll kill you slowly."
Aldric laughed—that charming, practiced laugh I'd once thought was genuine. "Protective, isn't he? They said the bond makes Guardians territorial. I didn't believe it until now."
Through our connection, I felt Zephyrion's rage building like a storm about to break.
"I should thank you, Elara," Aldric continued, circling us like a predator. "Breaking your engagement freed me to pursue more profitable matches. But then you had to go and awaken Guardian-Caller blood. Now you're worth far more than any noble marriage." His smile turned cold. "If I control you, I control your Guardian. And with a Guardian's power at my command, I'll be unstoppable."
"I'm not a thing to be controlled," I spat.
"Everything is a thing to be controlled if you know how." Aldric raised his hand. Golden chains made of solidified lightning shot toward me.
Zephyrion deflected them with a blast of silver-white power. The two magics collided, and the air itself screamed.
"Impressive," Aldric said. "But you're weakened from your imprisonment. How long can you really fight?" More chains lashed out, faster now. "And you can't kill me without risking Elara. Storm Court law—harm a duke, and every member of his household dies. Including servants." His smile widened. "Your little maid friend Maren is legally still House Thornwick property. Hurt me, and she burns."
Zephyrion froze for just a heartbeat.
Aldric's chains wrapped around his wrists.
"No!" I lunged forward, but Aldric's magic knocked me back.
"Stay there, darling." Aldric pulled a crystal from his robes—it pulsed with sick green light that made my stomach turn. "I was saving this for a special occasion. Guardian-bane crystal, charged with corrupted essence. Cost me a fortune, but watching a mighty Guardian scream will be worth every coin."
"Don't—" I started.
He activated it.
The crystal's light exploded outward. Zephyrion's entire body went rigid. Then he screamed—a sound of pure agony that tore through the alley.
Through the bond, I felt everything.
Fire in his veins. Poison eating at his power. Every nerve ending burning like he was being torn apart from the inside. Eight hundred years of imprisonment and torture compressed into a single moment of agony.
I felt it all.
My vision went white. Not with pain—with rage.
Something inside me snapped. Not broke. Snapped into place.
Power erupted from my body in a wave that shook the entire street. Lightning struck the ground around us—once, twice, ten times in rapid succession. The sky above the alley turned black. Storm clouds formed from nothing, spinning into a vortex directly overhead.
"Elara—" Aldric's confident smile faltered.
I stood up. The bond mark blazed so bright it lit the entire alley. Silver-white lightning danced across my skin—not Zephyrion's power borrowed through the bond, but mine. My sealed gift, ripping free.
"You hurt him," I said, my voice layered with storm-fury I didn't know I possessed. "You hurt the one person who believed I was worth something."
"Wait—" Aldric backed up, raising defensive shields. "I didn't mean—"
"You never mean anything." I took a step forward. Lightning struck where my foot touched ground. "You used me for two years. Made me love you while you laughed behind my back. Destroyed me in front of everyone I knew." Another step. Another lightning strike. "And now you dare—you DARE—to torture him?"
The Guardian-bane crystal in Aldric's hand exploded. Zephyrion collapsed, gasping.
Through the bond, I felt his shock. His awe. His warning: Elara, stop. You'll hurt innocent people.
I'll hurt him first.
"Elara, be reasonable!" Aldric threw attack after attack—golden lightning, binding chains, crushing wind. None of it reached me. My power burned through his magic like paper.
I raised my hand. Lightning gathered in my palm—not golden like his, not even silver-white like Zephyrion's. This was something else. Something ancient. The original Guardian-Caller gift, pure and unstoppable.
Aldric saw it and went pale. "If you kill me, they'll hunt you forever. The Storm Court—"
"Let them come."
I released the lightning.
Aldric barely deflected it, but the blast threw him across the alley. He hit the wall hard enough to crack stone. When he looked up, blood trickled from his mouth. Fear—real fear—filled his eyes.
"You're... you're going to destroy everything..." he gasped.
"Good."
I gathered more power, ready to end him. Ready to make him pay for every humiliation, every lie, every moment he made me feel worthless.
Elara. Zephyrion's voice in my mind, weak but steady. Don't. This isn't you.
He deserves it.
He does. But you don't deserve to become a killer for him.
My hand shook. The lightning flickered.
Aldric saw his opening and ran, limping badly, leaving a trail of blood.
I almost chased him. Almost finished it.
Then Zephyrion's hand touched my shoulder, and the rage drained away like water through cracks. I collapsed against him, shaking.
"What... what was that?" I whispered.
"Your true power." He held me while the storm above us slowly dispersed. "Unsealed. Uncontrolled. Devastating."
"I almost killed him."
"But you didn't." He turned me to face him, his silver eyes gentle despite his pain. "That's what matters."
Footsteps pounded toward us—dozens of them. Storm-callers responding to the disturbance. We were out of time.
"Can you transport us again?" I asked.
"Not yet. The Guardian-bane..." He winced. "I need time to recover."
"We don't have time."
"I know."
The footsteps got closer. Shouts echoed through the Hollows. Duke Aldric's voice rose above them all: "She attacked me! The rogue Guardian-Caller tried to murder a duke! I want her taken alive!"
Zephyrion pulled me deeper into the alley, looking for an exit. Any exit.
Then Maren appeared at the far end, breathless and terrified. "This way! Quickly!"
We ran after her through a maze of back streets and hidden passages. Behind us, storm-callers spread through the Hollows like a plague, searching every building, threatening every resident.
Finally, Maren pulled us into a basement beneath an abandoned shop. She sealed the entrance with magic I didn't know she had.
"How did you—" I started.
"My grandmother's gifts." Maren's hands shook as she worked. "Guardian-Caller bloodline, remember? Not as strong as yours, but enough to hide us temporarily."
The bond mark on my chest pulsed weakly. I looked at Zephyrion—really looked. The Guardian-bane had left dark veins across his skin. He could barely stand.
"You need to rest," I said.
"No time. They'll find us eventually." He leaned against the wall, breathing hard. "And when they do—"
The basement door exploded inward.
But it wasn't storm-callers who entered.
It was my sister.
Cassian stood in the doorway, her hands crackling with unstable magic. Her eyes were wild, desperate, and filled with jealous hatred.
"Hello, sister," she said, her voice breaking. "Did you really think you could steal everything from me and just run away?"