Kael’s POV

The night hadn’t settled. It carried a pulse that didn’t belong to the wind.

I followed the pull south, past the border watch and down toward the ridge no one patrolled anymore. The earth there felt alive, like it waited for someone to listen. I knew before I saw it that the energy wasn’t natural. It was the same pattern that had burned through the forest days ago.

The third mark waited on the trunk of an old oak. The lines were darker this time, burned with precision, still warm. My breath stilled. That wasn’t possible.

Someone had bound us through scent and memory. My wolf rumbled low, uncertain if it was recognition or warning.

I pocketed the lock carefully. Destroying it felt wrong, almost dangerous. Whoever left this wanted me to see it. The first two marks had been warnings. This one was a message. I turned to leave, but the air shifted. A soft rustle followed, deliberate.

Vella stepped from the trees, calm as always. Her cloak dragged faintly across the frost. “You found it,” she said quietly. I didn’t bother asking how she knew. Seers never arrived by accident.

“You were following me?” I asked.

“No,” she said simply. “I was called here. The sigil burned through my wards an hour ago. It carries my signature.” I studied her face. “Explain.”

She crouched by the oak, fingers brushing the edge of the symbol. “It’s not a curse,” she murmured. “It’s an invitation. The third mark of convergence. Whoever is crafting these knows the Windermere rites intimately.”

“Windermere’s dead,” I said.

She smiled faintly. “Blood never dies. It just hides.” Her words hit too close. I remembered the marks on the rogues, the energy that had mirrored Mira’s pulse. I didn’t need more proof. This wasn’t random. It was deliberate, strategic, and personal.

Vella looked up at me, her expression unreadable. “You’ve touched it, haven’t you?”

“Once,” I said. “At the last ambush.”

“Then it’s already in motion.”

The symbol glowed again, reacting to my proximity. I stepped back, but the bond flared anyway, Mira’s energy burning briefly in my chest. She wasn’t near, yet her heartbeat flooded through me. Pain. Fear. Connection.

Vella’s tone shifted. “You’re tied to her now beyond instinct. This is the third stage, the summoning phase. Whoever began this ritual means to merge you completely. When the fourth mark appears, the bond will no longer ask for consent.”

“Who?” I demanded.

Her gaze flickered. “I don’t know. But they understand your bloodline. The Windermere house studied hybrid traits, power from union rather than birth. You carry that heritage, Kael. You were never meant to be ordinary.”

I clenched my fists. “You talk like you were there.”

“I was.” Her voice didn’t waver. “I served under the last Windermere Seer. My real name was Velindra. When the order fell, I swore to bury the rites. But someone’s resurrecting them, and they’re using you both as conduits.”

The truth settled like ice. I stared at her, searching for any hint of deceit. “You could’ve told me.”

“And would you have believed me?” she asked quietly. “You were still clinging to reason then.”

The sigil brightened suddenly, reacting again. Mira’s name whispered through my mind, faint but clear. Vella straightened fast. “She feels it too. They’re accelerating the merge.”

I wanted to destroy the mark, but instinct warned against it. “If I burn it?” “You’ll burn her,” she said sharply. “It’s tethered to her pulse now. Severing it will tear the link open in the worst way.”

I backed off, forcing calm. “Then how do we stop it?”

Her gaze turned heavy. “You can’t, not yet. You can only delay it. Find the source of the fourth mark before it finds you.”

Before I could answer, the mark flared violently. A sound like wind and whisper fused, Mira’s voice echoing again, softer this time, almost pleading. My wolf lunged inside me, reacting instinctively. The pulse faded as quickly as it came, leaving silence thick and heavy.

Vella exhaled, weary. “It’s begun,” she murmured.

Back at the stronghold, the tension was thick. The council demanded reports, pressing for answers on the missing scouts near the eastern ridge. I gave them protocol responses, neutral, safe, deliberate. No mention of the sigil, the hair, or Mira. Cyrus watched me the entire time, suspicion in his eyes but silence in his mouth.

Halfway through the meeting, Mira collapsed. Her knees buckled, eyes rolling back, breath shallow. The energy hit the room like a wave. I moved before anyone else, catching her just as she fell. The bond roared, fierce and immediate.

She gasped once, eyes fluttering open, confusion and pain twisting through her scent. “It’s burning,” she whispered.

“I know,” I said under my breath. I tried to hold on but inside of me I was burning. I didnt know the best way to handle it or what to call it. Just when to I was about to say something, I heard a voice saying ''stay apart and bear no grudge."