❤️ Julian's Pov ❤️
The climb out of the deep mines felt twice as long as the descent. The air in the upper levels was still thick with the acrid smell of burnt rot, but the "whispers" had been replaced by a heavy, expectant silence. As we reached the main level, Kaelen staggered, his hand bracing against the stone wall.
I caught him, my own legs feeling like lead. "Kaelen?"
He didn't answer. His skin was burning, not with the heat of an Alpha's arousal, but with a dry, sickly fever. The silver-tipped wound Silas had given him, which we thought had been purified by the bond, was glowing with a faint, necrotic purple light.
"The Mother's touch," Kaelen rasped, his eyes struggling to focus. "She didn't just attack us, Julian. She left a seed."
I practically dragged him back to our cabin, ignoring the panicked looks from the guards. I kicked the door shut and laid him on the furs. He was shaking now, his breath coming in shallow, ragged bursts. Through the bond, I felt his agony, it felt like cold glass shards moving through my own veins.
"I need to call the healers," I said, turning toward the door.
Kaelen's hand shot out, gripping my wrist with a strength that was fading fast. "No. The healers... they can't touch this. It's a spiritual poison. If they try to draw it out, it will jump to them."
"Then what do I do?" I cried, kneeling beside him. "I can't just watch you rot from the inside out!"
"The Forge," he whispered, his eyes sliding shut. "The ancient Iron Forge at the peak. It's fed by a volcanic vein. It's the only thing hot enough to burn the blight out of a wolf's blood."
I didn't hesitate. I shifted into my white wolf form, sliding my head under his arm to help him up. He leaned heavily on me, his breathing a wet rattle in his chest. We began the grueling trek to the very top of the Iron Ridge, to a place even the hardiest warriors avoided.
The Forge was a massive, open-air structure of obsidian and iron, built directly over a bubbling fissure of magma. The heat was staggering, enough to singe my fur even from several yards away.
I shifted back, my skin instantly slick with sweat. I helped Kaelen onto the central stone slab, the "Altar of the Forge."
"Julian," Kaelen wheezed, grabbing my hand. "You have to... you have to use the bond. Channel the heat through me. If I do it alone, I'll just burn. I need your silver light to act as the vessel."
I climbed onto the slab with him, straddling his waist. I looked down at the man who had become my entire world, the scarred commander who had taught me that being an Alpha wasn't about power, but about protection.
"I've got you," I whispered.
I closed my eyes and reached deep into the core of the Moonlit Bonds. I didn't just look for the light; I looked for the heat. I imagined the magma beneath us flowing into my veins, turning my silver light into white-hot lightning.
I pressed my palms against his chest, right over his heart.
The scream that tore from Kaelen's throat echoed off the mountain peaks. As I channeled the heat, the purple light in his veins began to retreat, sizzling and popping like fat in a fire. The black rot began to seep out of his pores in the form of a foul-smelling steam.
It was agony for both of us. My hands felt like they were melting into his skin, and the mental strain of holding the bond together while it was being blasted by volcanic heat nearly broke my mind.
Hold on! I roared in the mind-link. Don't you dare leave me, Kaelen!
I'm here, he replied, his voice a thready pulse in my brain. I'm... here.
The final purge came in a blinding flash of orange and silver. A shockwave of heat blasted outward, extinguishing the torches and cracking the stone pillars of the Forge.
When the smoke cleared, the purple light was gone. Kaelen lay still, his skin raw and red, but his breathing was deep and steady. The necrotic poison had been forged out of him.
I collapsed on top of him, my forehead resting on his shoulder. I was too exhausted to move, too drained to even shift back into my wolf.
Kaelen's hand moved, slowly find my hair. He stroked it with a trembling touch. "You did it," he breathed. "My King... you saved me again."
"Stop getting into trouble," I mumbled into his skin, a single tear of relief tracking through the soot on my face.
We stayed there on the altar as the sun began to rise over the purified Ridge. We were scarred, we were exhausted, and we were currently hunted by an ancient goddess of rot, but as Kaelen pulled me closer into his arms, I knew one thing for certain.
The fire had only made us stronger.