Nyx's POV
The messenger led the way down the worn path from our cottage toward the main road. I followed a few steps behind, pulling the cloak tighter around my shoulders against the morning chill.
We'd barely made it twenty feet when the pain started.
It began as a dull ache in my chest. It was uncomfortable but ignorable. I kept walking. The ache sharpened into something that made me stumble slightly.
'Child.' Frost's voice held a note of warning.
"I'm fine," I muttered.
The messenger glanced back. "Miss North?"
"Keep going. I'm right behind you."
But with each step away from the cottage, the pain intensified. What had started as an ache became a burning, then a tearing sensation that felt like something vital was being stretched beyond its limits. My breath came shorter. My vision started to blur at the edges.
And underneath my own pain, I felt something else.
Kael's pain. Sharp and confused, mirroring mine.
'This is one of the effects of the bond,' Frost said gently. 'You cannot be separated by great distance without pain. Not yet. Perhaps not ever.'
I ignored her.
'You will walk to yours and Kael's death.' She said with a note of finality.
"No." I took another step forward. The pain spiked so sharply I gasped. "No, that's…there has to be a limit. A distance we can—"
'The life-bond is new. This is not just any bond. It is a legendary bond. It will not tolerate separation until it has time to settle and strengthen. Days, perhaps. Maybe weeks.'
"I don't have days!" Another step. My knees nearly buckled. "The Council summoned me now—"
Through the bond, I felt Kael's agony spike in response to my own. He was trying to stand up, I realized. Trying to come to me despite his wounds, driven by the same instinct that was currently making my body scream at me to turn around.
'You cannot fight this, child. The bond will not allow it.'
"Miss North?" The messenger had stopped, was walking back toward me with concern on his young face. "Are you unwell? Should I—"
"I need to go back." The admission tasted like failure. "Just—give me a moment. I need to go back." I paused.
"I think you should go ahead. Tell the council that I am on my way. I just need to do something important."
He seemed shocked at my response. "Being summoned by the council is the most important event for a human. You can't—"
"Do. As. I. Said." A voice that felt like a combination of mine and Frost's voice originated from my orifice.
He bowed immediately. I felt his submission.
This is weird.
I turned and started towards my parents home, and the relief was immediate. The tearing sensation eased. My breath came easier. The bond hummed with approval as the distance between Kael and me decreased.
'This is my fault,' I thought bitterly. 'I did this. I bound us together and now neither of us can have a moment's peace.'
I felt Frost's disapproval at the back of my mind but she didn't say anything.
I burst back through the cottage door.
My family was still in the kitchen—my mother at the stove, my father and Finn emerging from the bedroom at the sound of my return. They all stared.
"Nyx?" My mother's face creased with worry. "What's wrong?"
"I can't leave." The words came out frustrated, close to tears. "The bond…we can't be separated. Not yet. Maybe not for—" I couldn't finish the sentence.
"Where is she?" Kael's voice called from Finn's room, rough with pain and something that might have been relief.
I crossed to the bedroom doorway.
He was sitting on the edge of the bed, one hand pressed to his chest, his face pale and drawn. When he saw me, some of the tension in his shoulders eased.
"You felt it too," I said. Not a question.
"Like being torn apart from the inside." His jaw was tight. "I thought…when you left, I thought maybe it was just the wounds, but then it got worse and I could feel that it was you, that you were in pain too. I think is the bond. That's the only logical explanation I could come up with."
"I'm sorry." The words burst out before I could stop them. "This is my fault. I did this to us. I bound us together without thinking about what it would mean, about the consequences—"
"Nyx—"
"No, let me finish." I wrapped my arms around myself. "You were right. I should have let you die. It would have been kinder than this…than forcing you to be tethered to me, unable to even walk away when you want to—"
'Enough.' Frost's command cut through my spiral. 'The bond is unstable because it is new. It requires anchoring.'
"Anchoring?" I asked aloud.
'Physical contact. Skin to skin. It will help the bond settle, ease the pain of separation until the connection strengthens on its own.'
I looked at Kael. His expression was carefully neutral, but through the bond I felt his resignation and something deeper—embarrassment, maybe. Or discomfort at the intimacy the bond was forcing on us.
"Frost says we need physical contact," I said quietly. "To stabilize the bond. Make it hurt less when we're apart."
"Who is Frost?" He asked and I bit lips. "Is that too personal—?"
"Frost is the wolf I bonded with."
His mouth formed a perfect 'o'. His shoulders slumped and he swallowed hard.
I could still feel his pain through the bond. Pain not from the bond but because of my bond to Frost. He thinks it should be his.
How long am I going to live with this?
"How much contact?" His voice was flat.
'For now? Significant. The bond needs to recognize you as two parts of a whole.'
"Significant," I repeated. "She says—" I hesitated. "She says I need to touch your chest. Your heart. And you need to touch mine."
The silence that followed was excruciating.