POV: Soraya
The courtyard had finally begun to settle—wounded moved to the healer’s wing, fires put out, warriors counting what supplies remained after the raid—but my nerves still buzzed like lightning trapped under my skin. My hands wouldn’t stop shaking. Every time I blinked, I saw the wolves I’d healed. The wolves I couldn’t reach in time. The ones who didn’t get up.
Vienne dragged me toward the inner hall, insisting I rest before I passed out on the stone. I barely heard her; my head was heavy with leftover magic, with guilt, with the echo of Zarek’s thoughts still scraping through the stream.
We had just reached the main stairway when a shout split the air.
“Make room! Alpha incoming—he’s hurt!”
My heart stuttered.
I turned so fast I nearly slipped on the steps.
The gate patrol staggered through the archway, and in the middle of them—
Raevan.
Blood soaked his entire right side. His armor was shattered in three places, his jaw bruised, his breathing uneven. Sand clung to him like ash. His eyes were unfocused, feral, burning.
My heart dropped straight to the stone floor.
“Raevan,” I whispered.
He stumbled.
Kaide caught him, swearing under his breath. “Someone get the healers! Now!”
“Already coming!” a voice shouted from behind.
But Raevan’s gaze found me first.
Even half-conscious.
Even bleeding enough to frighten seasoned warriors.
His eyes searched the crowd until they locked onto mine.
“Soraya…” His voice cracked, raw and animal. “Stay… there.”
I didn’t.
Instinct shoved my legs forward before my mind caught up. Wolves parted around me, some staring, some whispering, some wide-eyed after what I had done in the courtyard.
I reached Raevan just as his knees buckled.
“Don’t touch him—he’s unstable—” a warrior warned.
I ignored them.
My hands went to his face automatically, cupping his jaw. His skin was hot—too hot—and trembling under my palms.
“Raevan,” I breathed. “Look at me.”
His eyelids fluttered open. “Soraya…”
“Don’t talk,” I said, my voice firmer than I felt. “Just breathe.”
Kaide stepped beside me, trying—and failing—to hide his worry. “He took a blade meant for one of the young guards. The raider slipped through. I didn’t see him in time.”
Raevan growled weakly. “He was just a kid.”
I felt the anger ripple through him, sharp and poisonous.
But stronger than anger was the pain.
He sagged forward, his forehead nearly touching my shoulder. His hand gripped my wrist—too tight, too desperate, like anchoring himself to consciousness.
“I’m fine,” he rasped.
“You’re bleeding everywhere,” I snapped.
“And I said…” He inhaled sharply as a wave of pain hit him. “I’m… fine.”
I glared at him, furious and terrified all at once. “Stop talking. You sound like you’re dying.”
He tried to smirk. It looked more like a grimace. “Not dying. Just… inconveniently stabbed.”
Kaide shot me a look. “He’s losing blood too fast. We need your help.”
“My help?” My throat tightened. “Kaide, I don’t— I can’t control—”
“You healed three wolves today,” he said. “Without trying. Raevan needs you now. Don’t think. Just do what you did before.”
My pulse hammered.
Raevan wasn’t just bleeding.
He was fading.
I lowered him to sit on the ground, the crowd forming a loose circle around us. His breath hitched, his jaw clenched, his fingers digging into my arm.
“Soraya,” he murmured again, softer this time. “I knew you’d come.”
Tears threatened my eyes. “Shut up and stay still.”
His chest shook with a faint laugh that nearly broke me.
I pushed my trembling hands against the torn armor, right over the bleeding gash. Raevan hissed in pain, but didn’t pull away.
My own fear nearly stopped me.
What if I hurt him?
What if the power lashed out again?
What if I couldn’t control it?
What if—
His hand slid to the back of my neck, fingers brushing lightly, grounding me. “Soraya,” he whispered, barely audible. “I trust you.”
The words steadied me in a way nothing else could.
I closed my eyes.
Breathed in.
Met the magic where it simmered under my skin.
And let it rise.
Warmth flooded my palms.
Heat spread through my arms.
The light flickered—hesitant at first, uncertain like me—before spilling out, glowing gold against Raevan’s blood-soaked armor.
Gasps rippled through the courtyard.
Raevan’s breath caught, then slowly eased. His grip on my wrist loosened—not from weakness, but from relief. The tension in his jaw softened. His eyes fluttered shut.
The wound closed beneath my hands, the torn muscle knitting together, the bleeding stopping completely. The magic hummed louder, demanding more—wanting to heal everything, wanting to flood him with strength he’d lost—but I forced it back.
Control. Focus. Enough.
When the last flicker faded, I pulled my hands away. They trembled violently, the leftover heat buzzing against my skin.
Kaide exhaled a shaky breath. “That… was incredible.”
A warrior whispered, “The Zehrael girl saved the Alpha.”
Another murmured, “Maybe she’s not cursed after all…”
I didn’t care about any of them.
I only cared that Raevan’s eyes were opening again.
He stared up at me, breathing steady now. His hand still rested against my neck, thumb brushing faintly against my pulse.
“You… saved me,” he murmured.
“I shouldn’t have had to,” I whispered.
The truth slipped out before I could stop it.
Raevan’s expression softened—even through exhaustion, even with blood drying on his skin.
Soraya. Soraya.
It wasn’t telepathy.
But somehow, I felt him thinking it.
I swallowed hard and pulled my face away before emotion choked me. “You’re reckless. And stupid. And you terrify me when you get hurt.”
He smiled—small, weak, real. “Then stay close. So I stop terrifying you.”
My heart lurched painfully.
Vienne appeared with the healers. “Storm girl, step back. Let us take him.”
I nodded numbly and moved away.
But as they lifted Raevan to carry him inside, he reached out blindly—not for the healers, not for Kaide—
For me.
His fingers brushed mine for a second, warm and gentle.
Then he was gone, carried into the fortress.
Leaving me in the courtyard with a heart full of fear, magic burning under my skin, and the sinking knowledge that saving him had only made everything harder.
And infinitely more dangerous.