CURSED BOND

CHAPTER EIGHT :The Cage

Silver burned my wrists.

The cuffs weren’t ordinary iron.

“Move,” one of the enforcers snapped, shoving me forward.

The woods gave way to a clearing I’d never seen.

A ritual site.

Mara’s sister stood in the center, bound to an iron stake. She was maybe sixteen, all sharp eyes and stubborn jaw Mara’s face, younger and scared.

Elder Mara stepped out from behind a pillar of stone. She wasn’t bleeding anymore.

I spat at her feet. “Let her go.”

Elder Mara smiled. “I will. After.”

She gestured, and two enforcers dragged me to the second stake. The collar came next.

Cold iron closed around my throat.

The world went quiet.

Panic hit me like a wave. For ten seconds I couldn’t breathe.

Elder Mara knelt in front of me. “Don’t look so scared, child. You’re the key. Without you, the ritual fails. With you, the pack belongs to us.”

“And you think I’ll just let you use me?” I said.

“I think you’ll do whatever it takes to keep her alive,” she said, nodding to Mara’s sister. “Just like Kade would do for you.”

She stood, raising her hands.

The sigils flared red.

Pain hit me like a blade under the ribs. My blood felt like it was boiling, pulling toward the collar, toward the stone.

Mara’s sister screamed behind her gag.

“Stop!” I said. My voice cracked.

Elder Mara didn’t stop.

“Blood for blood,” she chanted. “Bond for bond. The alpha line will kneel.”

The collar tightened. I couldn’t breathe.

Then the ground shook.

---

*The first enforcer went down before I saw what hit him.*

Kade came through the tree line like a storm.

“LYRA!”

His voice cut through the haze.

I’m here.

That was all i said.

I drove my shoulder into the enforcer holding me, knocked him off balance, and slammed my cuffed wrists into his jaw. Silver burned, but it burned him more.

Chaos erupted.

Darian and Mara hit the edge of the circle a second later, fighting to reach Mara’s sister. Darian ignored the blood on his side and lunged anyway, blade flashing. Mara had a staff now, swinging it with everything she had.

Elder Mara didn’t panic. She smiled.

“Good,” she said. “Let him come. The ritual requires his blood too.”

She raised her hands.

The sigils flared brighter.

Kade hit the edge of the circle and bounced back like he’d run into glass.

“Lyra, cut it!” he shouted.

I didn’t have a blade. I had teeth.

I bit my palm hard enough to draw blood, then pressed my palm to the iron collar. The copper taste filled my mouth, mixed with ash.

The old words came back to me. My father’s handwriting, scrawled in the journal before they killed him.

Blood for blood. Bond for bond. Break the chain.

The collar shuddered.

Elder Mara’s eyes widened.

“Stop her!” she screamed.

Too late.

The collar cracked down the middle and fell away.

Air rushed into my lungs. I choked on it, gasping.

The bond slammed open.

For one second, we were one again.

Kade roared and hit the wards.

This time, they shattered.

---

*The fight turned.*

I grabbed a fallen blade and cut Mara’s sister free.

“Run,” I told her. “Get to Darian.”

She nodded, tears streaming, and bolted. Darian caught her before she hit the ground, pulling her behind him.

Elder Mara hit Kade with blood magic. He flew back ten feet and hit the ground hard.

She turned to me, blood dripping from her mouth, smile gone. “You think you’ve won?”

I stepped forward, blade up. “I think you’re out of time.”

“You don’t understand,” she said. “The sect doesn’t need me. There are others. Everywhere. Wardens in every city.”

“Then we’ll find them,” I said.

She laughed.

“Meet the warden,” she said.

The ground split.

A figure rose from the crack, wreathed in black smoke. Taller than a man, shaped like a man but no face. Just a mask of bone, and eyes that burned red.

The warden raised a hand.

Blood magic lashed out, hitting Kade in the chest and throwing him back into a tree. The trunk splintered.

He didn’t get up right away.

“NO!”

I moved before I thought.

The blade in my hand felt light.

I hit the warden at a dead run and drove the blade into its chest.

Silver met bone.

It screamed.

Kade was on his feet in an instant, pulling me back as the warden exploded outward in a wave of black smoke and red light.

We hit the ground hard.

When the smoke cleared, Elder Mara was gone.

The sigils were dark.

The ritual was broken.

---

*Then the ground shook again.*

From footsteps.

Dozens of them.

Coming from the south.

Darian pushed himself up, blood on his lips, and cursed. “We have company.”

Kade pulled me behind him, stance shifting back to fight mode in an instant. His hand found mine and squeezed once.

I’m here. I’m not letting go.

The trees parted.

A dozen enforcers stepped out.

Leading them was a man I’d never seen before. Tall, broad-shouldered, wearing a mask of gold and bone. The mask had no eyes, no mouth. Just smooth curves and red light glowing from the inside.

He didn’t speak.

He just raised a hand.

And the air went cold.

Blood magic rolled off him in waves, thick and wrong.

Kade’s jaw tightened. “Warden.”

The masked man tilted his head.

“You broke the first,” he said. His voice was layered, “You won’t break the second.”

Mara’s sister clutched her arm, eyes wide. “There’s more than one?”

The masked man smiled behind the mask.

“There are twelve,” he said.

Kade pulled me closer. “Run.”

I didn’t move.

Because running wasn’t an option anymore.

The masked man raised his hand.

“Kill them all,” he said.

The enforcers charged.

Kade moved to meet them.

I moved with him.

The connection flared between us, open and ready.

We weren’t two people anymore.

We were one weapon with four hands.

---

*We fell.*

Cold. Dark. Smelling of old blood and wet stone.

I hit something hard and rolled, coming up on my knees, blade ready.

Kade landed beside me, already moving.

Torches flared to life around us.

We were in a chamber under the clearing. Older than the chapel. Older than the academy. The walls were carved with serpent sigils, and the floor was stained dark.

In the center was an altar.

And on the altar was a girl.

Unconscious. Early twenties. She looked like me.

Like a Vale.

Kade froze. “No.”

The warden dropped down behind us, landing without a sound.

“Your sister,” he said. “We found her three years ago. She’s been waiting for you.”

I didn’t have a sister.

Did I?

Kade stepped in front of me. “You lie.”

The warden smiled. “Ask her.”

The girl on the altar stirred. Her eyes opened.

They were the same shade of green as mine.

“Mara?” she whispered. Not me. The other Mara.

The girl’s eyes found mine. “Lyra?”

The world tilted.

Kade put a hand on my shoulder, steadying me.

The warden raised his hands.

“The ritual continues,” he said. “Three Vale bloodlines. Three Blackwood lines. The alpha will kneel, and the pack will rise.”

Kade moved.

So did I.

We hit him together.

---

*The fight in the chamber was worse.*

The space was smaller. The air was thick with blood magic. Every swing, every dodge, echoed off the stone.

The warden didn’t fight like a man. He moved like smoke, like he wasn’t fully here. Blades passed through him and did nothing.

Kade’s claws caught him once, tearing through his shoulder. Black blood sprayed, but the wound closed in seconds.

“He’s not alive,” Kade said, breathing hard. “He’s bound.”

“Then we unbind him,” I said.

I ran for the altar.

The girl my sister?was awake now, eyes wide with fear.

“Lyra, don’t!” she said.

I grabbed her hand.

The moment I touched her, the bond flared. Not Kade’s bond. Something older.

Family.

Blood.

The altar lit up.

The warden screamed.

Kade hit him from behind, driving him into the stone.

“Break it!” Kade shouted.

I cut my palm and pressed it to the altar.

Blood for blood. Bond for bond. Break the chain.

The chamber shook.

The altar cracked.

The warden’s mask shattered.

Underneath was nothing.

Just smoke and red light.

The smoke surged outward, trying to find a host.

It hit me.

---

*Pain.*

Every nerve lit up at once. I felt it trying to burrow into me, to use my blood, my bond, my wolf.

Kade was shouting my name.

I couldn’t answer.

The girl my sister grabbed my other hand.

“Let me help,” she said.

I nodded.

She cut her palm and pressed it to mine.

Two Vale bloodlines.

The smoke hit a wall.

It screamed and retreated.

The chamber went quiet.

The warden was gone.

Just a pile of ash and bone on the floor.

Kade pulled me into his arms before I could fall.

“You’re okay,” he said. Again. Like he needed to hear it.

I nodded. I couldn’t speak.

The girl my sister sat up, breathing hard.

“My name’s Lila,” she said. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”

I looked at her. Really looked.

She had my eyes. My jaw. My father’s stubborn chin.

“Me neither,” I said.

Kade looked between us, then at Darian and Mara, who were watching from the edge of the chamber.

“We need to move,” he said. “Now. The sect will know the warden is dead.”

I nodded.

We helped Lila to her feet. She leaned on me, shaking.

As we left the chamber, I looked back.

The altar was dark. The sigils were broken.

But I could feel it.

There were more.

Eleven more.

And they were waking up.

---

*We burst out of the ground into the clearing.*

Dawn was breaking.

The clearing was empty.

No sect. No enforcers.

Just ash and silence.

Mara’s sister was crying, holding her sister tight. Darian was scanning the treeline, blade still in hand.

Kade pulled me to him, pressing his forehead to mine.

“You’re alive,” he said.

“So are you,” I said.

He smiled. “Barely.”

Lila stepped forward, hesitating. “What now?”

Kade looked at me.

I looked at Lila.

“We find the other wardens,” I said. “Before they find us.”

Darian exhaled. “There’s a problem with that.”

He held up a scroll. The serpent sigil was burned into the wax seal.

“They sent this,” he said. “An hour ago. To every pack in the region.”

Kade took it. Opened it.

His face went still.

“What?” I asked.

He handed it to me.

The message was short.

The Vale bloodline is awake. The ritual begins at the Blood Moon. Surrender, or watch your pack burn.

Kade’s hand found mine. His grip was iron.

The bond hummed with one thought:

We don’t surrender.

I nodded.

“Then we end it,” I said. “All of it. Tonight.”

Mara stepped forward. “How?”

I looked at Kade.

He looked at me.

“We hit them first,” he said.

---