Elora found her deep in thoughts a week after the encounter with Devin.
Just the thought caused her cheeks flush in embarrassment .
She hadn't expected to that day to turn out like that
But it had.
And when Elora awoke, wrapped in the hush of early dawn, her body felt heavier than usual—but not from exhaustion. From relief. From the soft echo of arms that had held her without judgment. Cold and strong. Still and steady.
It had been seven days yet....
Devin.
His name settled in her chest like a pulse. Not loud. Not frantic. Just present.
She sat up slowly, the blankets slipping from her shoulders. Her eyes were puffy, and her chest ached from how deeply she'd cried, but she didn't regret a single tear.
Because for the first time in weeks, she hadn't cried alone.
She moved to the window and cracked it open. The wind was cold, but it didn't bite. It curled around her face gently, like a familiar hand brushing past. She leaned into it.
Somewhere out there, Devin was walking through the frost of morning, probably already back behind the Knight estate walls, pretending he didn't feel everything she did.
But she knew he did.
She had felt it.
There was a connection.
Thin as a thread.
But real.
And it terrified her.
She dressed quietly and went downstairs. Mira was already awake in the kitchen, grinding frostroot into a bitter paste.
"Good morning," Elora said softly.
Mira looked up.
Her gaze didn't meet Elora's the way it usually did. It rested on her. Heavy. Calculating.
Elora slowed, heart catching. "What is it?"
Mira wiped her hands on a cloth. "You just feel different since that night you left home"
Elora cocked her head to the side
"How?"
"Like an extra presence, what happened"
The way she asked made Elora pause.
"Mira," she began cautiously, "what are you asking?"
Mira stepped closer.
Her tone was low. "What exactly did you do Elora?."
Elora yelled. "Do what, Mira?"
Mira didn't answer.
And Elora patience was getting thinner
The moment stretched between them.
"That's not—" Elora swallowed. "I didn't mean to. It just happened. I was upset. Am sorry for yelling Mira"
Mira turned back to the counter. Her hands moved fast, mixing, pressing, bottling. "It's nothing Elora, If you could hold that in for long I commend you, You've been nothing but understanding and abiding Elora"
"Can you just tell me what I did Mira?" Elora whispered.
Mira sighed. "A supernatural being has some thing called source. A source is like a river that contains the life form and magic from of a spiritual being. It is the most important aspect of us."
Elora sat at the table, hands curled around her knees. "Mira…"
Mira stopped.
Turned.
"Just like how two rivers join to form the circumference, the source can do that too."
Elora's breath caught. "So..."
"When sources link, it's either because of .....
Elora leaned forward. "Of what ,Mira?"
Mira didn't speak.
"What does this have to do with me?"Elora asked
"Elora.... You might have formed a partial bond or link to someone "
Elora frowned
"Me.. How? Is this bad?"she asked.
"I don't know how you were able to form a partial bond with someone, you don't even know what it was"
"And to answer your question, Yes it's damn bad if you partially shared a link with the wrong or bad person"
Elora fingers trembled slightly
Who... What exactly did she do.
"Mira, I still need to understand it's implications"
"Supernatural beings never form a link unless it is to someone they want to spend their lifetime with" Mira turned away
Boom!
Elora for a moment was dumbstruck
"L... Like a forever marriage?"
Mira gave Elora a sad look and nodded.
Elora lost her footing and crumbles to the ground.
"Elora" Mira called softly pulling her from the ground
"It's going to be okay"
"No it's not Mira, I don't even know who I formed a bond with now" Elora sobbed softly
"Surely you do"
Elora wiped her face slowly
"I do?"
'It couldn't be right?'
Elora eyes widened
"Well who is it" Mira asked curiously
Elora reluctantly looked at Mira and gulps in saliva nervously.
"Mmmm... I don't think I know yet" Elora blurted out
"Ooookayy" Mira drawled giving Elora a 'I got you figured out sweetie' look
___________________
The evening breeze was unusually bitter, like the town itself had grown weary of breathing. Devin stood by the fountain near the east end of Hawthorne with Elias and the other groups, where old stone met quiet water, when someone told him a woman was asking after him.
He was quite surprised to see that it was Mira who had asked for him.
She turned as he approached her.
"Devin," she said, her voice low and unreadable.
He offered a polite nod, but nothing more. He wasn't sure what this was—another coincidence or something orchestrated. "Mira," he replied.
There was silence for a moment. Then, without preamble, Mira stepped closer and looked him in the eye.
"I need you to stay away from Elora."
Devin blinked. The words hit harder than he expected. "Excuse me?"
"You heard me."
He looked away briefly, jaw tightening. "Why?"
Mira's gaze didn't falter. "Because you might end up hurting her—beyond imagination."
Devin swallowed back the instinct to argue. He didn't like being told what to do, especially not when it came to someone he… cared about, even if he hadn't yet admitted that part to himself. "We barely speak. I don't know where this is coming from."
"That's the problem," Mira said, stepping forward. "You don't know.Something happened."
Her words slipped into his mind like frost beneath a door. He remembered Elora's trembling frame in his arms, how natural it felt to hold her, how wrong it felt to let go.
"I'm not trying to hurt her," he said quietly.
"No," Mira agreed. "But it might not be up to you."
"In case you might still be ignorant, you formed a bond with Elora, am sure you understand what that entails"
"A link? How?".
His breathing hitched.
His chest tightened.
A bond the link between two sources
Him and Elora.
That explains why he could feel her pain that day.
How could a bond even be formed unintentionally?.
"Yeah, you some how did" she added, "It's growing. But it's partial. Still enough to stir what should remain still."
Devin looked away again barely holding back his anger.
"What exactly are you trying to say?"
Mira sighed, just once. "Stay on the sidelines. For her sake. For yours."
Devin gave Mira a cold glare.
Being bonded to Elora meant being together, and her mother or whatever relationship Mira had with Elora, was telling him to stay with away from his life mate.
A heavy silence stretched between them. Devin's heart hammered in his chest. Something about this conversation wasn't just about feelings—it was about danger.
"And you are telling me that as her what?" Devin asked
"As her guardian and the only family she has left" Mira said with a tone that suggested she should be messed with.
"Partial or not, Mira I am know to be a blunt person, I won't beat around the corner, I won't accept the link been broken" Devin said with a dangerous tone than before.
Her eyes narrowed.
The tension between them stretched longer.
Finally Devin backed down
"Why don't we leave that for Elora to decide for herself" Mira said
Devin ignored her and asked something that had been truly bothering him
"People are dying.Mira , Families are shattering every day. It's spreading fast, and no one's doing anything."
"I know."
That answer was too calm.
"I also know that what we need doesn't lie within reach. The herbs, the root binders, the purging agents—they're locked away. Or worse, hoarded."
Devin frowned. "Where?"
"The founding families," she said without hesitation. "Or one of them, at least."
Of course. The powerful always had what others lacked.
Devin frowned
"And you think they won't help because they're not affected."
"They've already decided," she said. "This plague only affects humans. To them, it's a necessary pruning."
A sour taste burned the back of Devin's throat. "So we let more people die?"
Mira's gaze flickered with something darker. "I never said that. But charging in like a hero will only get Elora exposed. Or worse. I need time. And patience. Which means…"
"I stay away," Devin muttered.
"Exactly. The closer you are to her, the more attention you draw. Keep your distance. Keep your family out of this. No questions. No interference. No knightly duty. Don't let your family know about your bond with her"
He clenched his fists. "So what then? I just pretend I don't see what's happening? I watch both of us suffer from the shadows? you know how it works"
Devin kind of agreed with Mira keeping Elora away from his family. He wouldn't want Elora to witness the brutality and then harshness of the knights.
Mira's gaze softened for a single moment. "I'm not asking you to stop caring. I'm asking you to protect her in the only way that matters right now—through silence."
The word scraped his skin like ice.
"I need to know I can trust you," she finished. "Not as a knight. But as someone who sees her—not the legend or the danger. Just her."
Devin didn't respond immediately. He stared at the ground, letting the weight of her words settle in his chest like a storm cloud. Finally, he nodded once, tightly.
"I'll do what needs to be done."
Mira stepped back, her cloak dancing in the breeze again. "Good."
Then she turned and melted into the darkness of the trees, leaving him with the bitter cold of silence and a heart at war.
Given if it was under any circumstance Devin would have been flown to the moon over how he felt about sharing a bond with Elora.
He certainly doesn't see any one more suitable for him
But he had many factors to consider
The founding families.
His father.
His brother.
Silva.