Mira’s POV

I sat on the healer’s cot, my pulse was unstable. “You’re hiding something,” he said. I didn’t deny it. The room was quiet for a few seconds. Then his voice again sounded. “Tell me the truth, no more half-answers.”

I looked away. “You don’t want the truth.”

“I do,” he said. “I’ve earned it.” He glared at me forcefully and added. ''Those who tell lies always live to regret it.''

“You’ll hate me if I do, I whispered. “Then give me a reason why you think I would hate you if you tell me the truth, he snapped. “Because right now, I’m already halfway there,” I answered.

The words sliced through what little control I had left. “After I left Blackridge, I wasn’t alone,” I said quietly. He stilled. “What does that mean?”

“It means I carried something with me,” I said. “Something I couldn’t tell you about.”

His voice dropped lower. “Say it.”

“A child, Kael. Yours.”

The world fell silent. His eyes stayed on me, unreadable. “You’re lying.”

“I wish I were,” I said. “But I’m not.”

He stepped back slowly. “You had my child and never told me.”

“I tried,” I said. “I came back once, but your council wouldn’t let me through. By the time I found another way, it was too late.”

His silence was worse than shouting.

“How long?” he asked finally.

“Six years ago,” I said. “He was born in the borderlands. I named him Eron.”

He turned away sharply. “And now?”

“Gone,” I whispered. “The rogues came when he was barely three. I fought, but they took him. There was blood,someone’s, not his, I hoped. I searched for months.”

He spun back toward me. “You lost my son?”

“Our son,” I said. “And yes. I lost him.”

He swore under his breath, pacing. “You should have come to me.”

“They would have killed him,” I said quickly. “You know what the council does to children born of mixed essence. They’d call him cursed.”

He sprang up, paced the room for a few seconds, and slammed his hand against the wall. “You don’t decide that for me,'' he thundered.

“I didn’t have a choice, I was trying to protect him,”I said.

The mark on my arm burned suddenly, the bond pulsing harder. “The sigils,” he said, voice low. “They started after you lost him.”

I nodded weakly. “The first appeared near where he vanished. I thought it was a curse. Then they spread, same pattern, same energy that felt like him.”

Kael’s breathing turned uneven. “You think the sigils are tied to our son?”

“I don’t know. But when the third one appeared, I felt him, just for a second. Like he was reaching through.”

He stared at me for a long moment. “You should have told me from the start.” “You wouldn’t have believed me,” I said. “I would’ve fought for him.”

The words hung between us, too sharp to bear. I looked away. “You still can,” I whispered. “If he’s alive.” His hands clenched. “We don’t even know where to begin.”

“I do,” I said quietly. “Vella knows. She’s seen him in fragments. She said his blood carries Windermere’s mark.”

He froze. “Windermere?”

“She believes someone took him for the same reason they branded the woods. They’re trying to awaken the bloodlines through us. Through him.” Kael’s voice dropped to a whisper. “Our son is part of this.”

“He always was,” I said. “We just didn’t see it.”

“Why didn’t Vella tell me?”

“Because she wasn’t sure,” I said. “The visions come fractured. She didn’t want to risk false hope.” He exhaled sharply. “Hope is all I have left.”

The bond pulsed again, stronger than before. Pain cut through me. He caught me before I fell. “What’s happening?” he demanded.

“The truth,” Vella’s voice said from the doorway. She stepped in quietly, eyes distant. “Truth always has a cost.”

Kael turned toward her. “You knew.” “I suspected,” she said. “The energy in the sigils wasn’t rogue magic; it was bloodline magic. A child’s essence is bound to his parents’. It explains the imbalance.”

“Where is he?” Kael asked. She met his gaze. “Alive. But hidden where no living wolf should walk. The Windermere remnants took him. They’ve been waiting for the marks to mature.”

“They want to use him,” I said. “They already are,” Vella said softly. “Each mark you find feeds their ritual. When the fourth appears, they’ll draw him out through you.”

Kael’s voice dropped to a growl. “Not if I find them first.” Vella shook her head. “You can’t go alone. The link binds you both. If you break it, she dies.”

He turned sharply to me. “Then we go together.” “No,” I said. “If the ritual uses our bond, being together strengthens it.”

“I won’t leave you behind again,” he said.

“You might have to.”

Something in him cracked. “We’re not losing him,” he said. “Not again.” Vella laid a hand over the mark on his wrist. “Prepare yourself. The fourth will appear before dawn. It will call both of you. When it does, follow it, but know this: what you find may not be what you lost.”

She left. The echo of her steps faded into the hall.

Kael stood silent for a moment, then looked at me again. “I need you to tell me everything about that night.”

“It was raining,” I began. “I’d put him to sleep in the shelter. I felt the pulse, someone tapping into the bond. By the time I ran inside, he was gone. Only blood and a mark on the door. The same one burned into the trees now.”

He listened without interrupting. When I finished, he said quietly, “They marked him as the anchor.”

“The anchor?”

“For the ritual,” he said. “If they use him to bind the bloodlines, we’re not just linked to him; we’re bound through him. They could use it to control us both.”

“Then what do we do?” I asked. He straightened. “We find the fourth mark before they complete it. And if that fails, we destroy the link ourselves.”

“That could kill us,” I said. “Better us than him.” The silence that followed was heavy.

He turned toward the door. “Rest while you can. When the fourth appears, there’ll be no turning back.” I wanted to stop him, but he was already gone, swallowed by duty, loss, and guilt too deep to heal.

The night bled into quiet. My heart continued racing. The pulse beneath my skin throbbed faintly, rhythmic, almost like a heartbeat. Vella’s warning echoed. When the fourth appears, what you find may not be what you lost.

The bond hummed again, pulling faintly south. Somewhere beyond the walls, the air stirred with old magic. I knew Kael felt it too.

Then a child’s laugh, faint and distant, brushed my mind. My heart skipped.

The ritual had begun.