Draven Ashborne's Arc

Chapter 31 of 17

The foothold was a bare hilltop the dark had not reached yet. The six sat around a cold fire while the sky stayed gray. Nobody looked at Draven. Aldric spoke first, flat and sharp. "The circle broke where you two stood. Twice." Briar flinched at the edge in his voice, but she did not argue. Aurelius set his jaw. Celestia only watched Draven with her purple eyes, waiting. They had failed because of him and Seraphina, and everyone in the ring knew it. Seraphina sat across the fire, three seats from Draven, where Eldrich had put her. That was the problem. His hands wanted to reach for her. When the light surged, his fire always turned her way. He had trained for weeks with Glaciana to hold his human form without her touch. He could do that now. But his fighting instinct still snapped to her side the moment danger came, and until he broke that, he could not hold his own place in the circle. Celestia rose. She was very old, older than any of them, and she spoke like it. "You fault them for something older than choice," she said. "Dragon blood does not love the way we do. A mate bond is not affection. It is a pull in the marrow. His body will always turn to guard hers first. Hers to him. That is not weakness. It is nature, and nature does not bend to a lecture." She looked at Draven. "It will take real work to stand against it. Not one night." Aldric pushed his glasses up. He had been quiet, thinking. His eyes thirsted for the knowledge Celestia possessed. He sat next to her and started asking questions while comparing his notes and texts. After an hour he returned and shared insights. "Then we don't fight the pull," he said. "We ease it. Temporarily." He unrolled a scrap of paper covered in his own cramped notes. "The bond runs hottest when you fear for her. Take the fear away and the instinct has nothing to grab." He looked at Aurelius. "Your light. Bind it into a token she carries. Draven feels it, knows she is safe, and his blood stops screaming to reach her." Aurelius drew his blade. Holy light gathered along the edge, gold and steady. He pressed it to a small stone Briar handed him, and the light sank into the rock until it glowed like a coal. Seraphina closed her fist around it. The warmth of it reached Draven across the fire, plain and certain. She was safe. He felt his own pulse slow. "Now stand apart and form a circle" Eldrich said quietly. "You cannot stand next to her or instinct will make you channel more power into each other than the others.” They formed the ring again on the bare hill. Draven took Briar's hand and Aurelius's. Seraphina stood three away. When Celestia called for the light, the old pull came, and Draven's fire strained toward Seraphina. Then the stone's warmth touched him. She was safe. He fed his heat slow into Briar instead. The light held. It did not gutter. For the first time the circle stood clean with the two of them apart. Eldrich let out a breath. "That will do. For now." The token would fade by dawn. But they had proven it could be done.