She approached without seeming to touch the ground, and a moment later I realized she wasn't— she floated upward until her violet eyes hovered just above mine. Cold fingers threaded through my blood-matted hair before tightening into a grip that yanked my head back. Despite my new monstrous form, her strength dwarfed mine effortlessly.

  "What do you want from me?" The words escaped as barely a whisper.

  Her lips curled into a predatory smile. "That discussion can wait. I've invested far too much in bringing you here to watch you die from... misplaced heroism." Her gaze darted toward Lyren as she released my hair. "The elf fades with each passing moment."

  "I…I have to save her if I can," I said, my voice barely steady.

  "Then you must claim her soul before the witch’s magic breaches her core. After which it will be too late. Make her essence your own or watch her turn. It is your choice, my pet."

  My stomach twisted. Souls? Real, tangible souls? The concept of seizing another person's essence felt wrong on a level so deep I couldn't articulate it. What would happen to Lyren if I did this? Would she still be herself, or some hollow puppet?

  Yet beneath my revulsion, something else stirred, a dark hunger that hadn't existed in me before today. The beast inside me paced restlessly, anticipating the hunt, the capture, the domination. I could almost feel claws scraping against my ribcage from within.

  I shook my head violently. "I can't… I won't do that to her. Would anything of Lyren even remain?"

  Nyxora's violet eyes gleamed as she extended her hands like balancing scales. "Such deep moral quandaries. Would your friend prefer existence as a mindless creature of hunger and corruption, devouring souls for eternity? Or perhaps..." her lips curved into a knowing smile, " a full, rich life with just one small condition, servitude to the dashing hero who rescued her?"

  She brushed debris from a nearby stone with delicate fingers before perching upon it, crossing one leg over the other with casual elegance.

  “The decision is entirely yours. I would never force you to do anything you didn’t want to, my pet.” She purred, I had a hard time not laughing in her face hearing that from the woman who kidnapped me.

  “Take your time.” She arched her eyebrows looking over at Lyren. ”Well, maybe not too much time." She added with a mocking wince.

  Lyren's body arched in another violent spasm, her lips splitting as obsidian fluid streaked with electric orange pulsed from the ripped corners of her mouth.

  "Fine! I'll do whatever it takes!" I shouted. "Just tell me how!"

  Nyxora's lips curled into a smile as she rose to her feet, hands coming together in a delicate, almost childlike clap. "Wonderful. Though I must point out that you're hardly in condition to save anyone."

  "This half-formed state of yours is..." she gestured vaguely at my body, "...disappointing, to say the least. I expected more." When I opened my mouth to object, she raised a silencing finger. "However, I recognize you were hardly prepared. Like being thrown into treacherous waters without having learned to swim. I won't hold it entirely against you."

  I fixed her with a hateful stare despite the fact that I had seen Nyxora turned into a giant ball of nightmare spaghetti just moments before.

  Nyxora's violet eyes narrowed. "You could have been a god among men on that pathetic world of yours. I offered you these powers years ago, imagine it! Women falling at your feet, men bowing before your might." Her lips curled into a sneer. "Instead, you resisted until I had no choice but to drag you from that miserable dirt ball where they'd hidden you from me all these years."

  My blood ran cold. Hidden? The implication hung in the air between us. Had Nyxora somehow orchestrated my parents' deaths? My fingers curled into fists. If she was responsible, no bargain would be worth it, not even to save Lyren. I wouldn't sell my soul to my parents' murderer.

  I hung on her every word, searching for any hint that she'd been involved in my parents' deaths, but Nyxora revealed nothing. She leaned forward until her face was inches from mine, her violet eyes narrowing to slits.

  "All those years wasted," she hissed. "By the time I tracked you down, the damage was done. Not your fault, of course, but immortality hasn't taught me patience, my pet."

  I glanced at Lyren's convulsing form. "She's dying. Just tell me what to do."

  "Yes, yes." Her fingers fluttered dismissively. "But before you can rescue your... friend," She enunciated the word like she was spitting out a rotten seed. "You must fully embrace what you are becoming."

  My lips pulled back from newly sharpened teeth. "I've already let your 'gift' twist my body into this... thing. Now there's some feral beast prowling around inside me."

  "Please. So dramatic. If I had known you were such a bore…” Nyxora glanced up and down at my lithe new body in my torn clothes. “Well I probably still would have wanted you. You are delectable, aren’t you?”

  I just stared at her blankly.

  “Fine. You are no fun at all. Lay the girl down over there," she said, pointing to a large flat stone near the tainted spring. I gently lifted Lyren, placing her on the cool smooth stone. "Now sit beside her and close your eyes," Nyxora commanded. After a moment I heard her voice again but this time it felt like it echoed through my mind instead of my ears. "Feel the power of my gift flowing through you. The raw untamed power runs rampant within you"

  I closed my eyes, trying to concentrate despite everything. The violet energy wasn't hard to locate, a tempest raging inside me, churning and writhing like a living thing.

  "Trace it back," Nyxora instructed. "From your fingertips to your center. Find where it first erupted during your transformation."

  I followed the chaotic currents inward.

  "Yes," she purred, "perfect. Now you must dominate it. This won't come easily. What flows through you now once belonged to me, a fragment of power I cut away ages ago. Only by conquering it, forcing it to yield, can you fully claim what I've given you."

  I pushed aside the troubling implications of Nyxora's words and followed her instructions, attempting to mentally grasp the violet tempest surging through my veins. The effort felt futile—like trying to crush a distant star between my fingertips by squinting at it.

  "Desire it as though nothing else matters," Nyxora commanded. "As though her survival hangs in the balance. Only such desperation will grant you mastery over this power."

  Beside me, Lyren's body convulsed violently. Her eyes snapped open, blazing with amber fire as her spine bent into an impossible arch that left only her head and heels touching the stone. The wound at her throat pulsed and bubbled, oozing a viscous mixture of orange and black that seemed to be alive with malevolent purpose.

  The elf's time is running out, my pet," Nyxora's voice slithered into my mind. "Bend that power to your will before she's lost forever."

  It was not going well. The violet storm raged against my mental grasp, like trying to capture a hurricane with bare hands. It tore through my essence, shredding what felt like the fabric of my being. Whatever this inner landscape was, it wouldn't survive much longer under such assault.

  Then I glimpsed something new, a network of delicate white filaments pulsing beneath the chaos. They formed an intricate latticework throughout my consciousness, barely visible against the overwhelming purple tempest. These channels carried their own luminescence, a power equal to Nyxora's gift but disciplined, ordered, patient where the violet was wild.

  What the hell? Another power lurking inside me?

  Something brushed against my consciousness, not forceful or intrusive, but like a finger tapping my shoulder. The white energy was communicating, guiding me toward a different approach with Nyxora' s ‘gift’.” I hesitated. Trusting this mysterious force might not be any better than listening to the violet-eyed demon's instructions, but Lyren was dying. What choice did I have?

  An understanding bloomed in my mind: instead of wrestling the violet storm into submission, I could direct it through these ready made pathways. The white veins weren't just present, they were waiting for just this occasion.

  Nyxora didn’t seem to know about the white energy or these veins. If she had known about them, she certainly hadn’t mentioned anything. I filed that information away for later, focusing on pushing the wild, chaotic energy into the channels, creating order from the chaos.

  It felt like trying to suck peanut butter through a straw. Sweat beaded on my temples as I clenched every muscle, willing the power to move. The channels resisted at first, then yielded a trickle, then a stream, then a flood.

  I'd expected the channels to rupture when the energies collided, but instead they expanded. The white essence pulsed faster, wrapping around the violet power like a python constricting its prey, not crushing it but containing it, directing it.

  The moment the energies merged, electricity shot through my limbs. My fatigue vanished. My senses sharpened. After a day of dragging myself forward on willpower alone, I suddenly felt like I could run a marathon, swim the English Channel, and still have energy left to climb a mountain.

  Nyxora's lips curved into a smile. " Yes. Just like that." Though she couldn' t see what I'd done with my channels, she sensed the taming of her power. " Now, find your core, the gateway to your soul."

  Despite her vague instruction, I traced the white veins backward through the labyrinth they formed. The pathways twisted and branched in dizzying patterns, but I persisted until I reached their source.

  "I...I found it," I said through gritted teeth. Before me hovered a blazing white orb, pulsing at the center of countless branching white filaments. Around this core swirled a violent storm of purple energy flowing like it was hunting, probing the sphere's surface with serpentine tendrils that pressed and tested for weaknesses, like a predator seeking entry.

  "Excellent. Now pierce the boundary of your core and venture into your true soul.”

  I resisted rolling my eyes at her instruction. The violet sludge circling my core like a shark wasn't subtle, clearly her "gift" had been trying to breach my soul since the first moment I’d set it free inside me.

  Manipulative witch.

  But Lyren was dying. I had no choice. Finding a section where the ooze seemed thinner, I pressed my palm against the luminous white surface. The violet substance reacted instantly, striking like serpents attacking my avatar over and over. A strange ephemeral pain lanced through me with each strike, then vanished as my avatar sank through the membrane.

  Inside a profound stillness enveloped me, though I could still see the purple energy thrashing beyond the translucent barrier, like watching a storm from underwater. But inside my core was calm and controlled, the presence of the white energy part of everything.

  I understood now that this power had already integrated itself into my soul just like Nyxora wanted me to do with her gift. But unlike that power, the white energy felt like it had always been a part of me. Maybe that’s why I hadn’t noticed it before?

  Floating at the center of this sanctuary hung a radiant white orb, pulsating with gentle waves of light that synchronized with my heartbeat.

  When I approached the warm glow reminded me of my mother for some reason. It gave me the same kind of feeling I had when I was a child and she would cradle me in the crook of her arm, reading to me about different types of migratory birds or the native fungus species of Northern California, on a cold winter day. It was soothing in a way that I think only I would understand.

  I stared at the pulsing white sphere. My soul. The real me. It felt incredibly powerful but also fragile like one of those faberge eggs they always talk about in heist movies. The outer part must be a protective shell.

  “You must pull my power into your soul and accept it willingly. Only then will you have the strength to save your elf.” Nyxora’s voice sounded like it was very far away, as if she was yelling down a long hallway.

  Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

  Every instinct in me rebelled against the idea of doing this. I knew that Myles Garber would cease to exist if I did what she wanted. Whatever emerged on the other side wouldn't be me anymore. The white energy and the shell around my core were the only things that had kept Nyxora’s power from already taking me over.

  Thump!

  My chest pounded as a resonant vibration echoed from my soul. The white sphere pulsed, its radiance flooding my vision until I couldn't distinguish blindness from immersion in pure light. Unlike the void where the beast had dragged me, this space held a strange serenity.

  Then it appeared, a colossal eye of crystalline blue materializing within the whiteness. Though it should have terrified me, a preternatural calm washed over me instead. The eye's gaze locked onto mine, its avian pupil constricting to a precise point as it studied me. Not human at all, the eye resembled something raptor-like, perhaps an owl's penetrating stare, ancient and knowing.

  The eye blinked once, and warmth flooded through me like a mother' s embrace. My shoulders relaxed involuntarily. My breath steadied. The sensation wrapped around me, not with words, but with impressions as clear as a hand on my shoulder steering me away from danger.

  “If I let that woman’s power inside my soul you will keep it from changing me?” I asked, but the reply I got was not what I wanted it to be. The massive pupil contracted, then expanded. Images flashed through my consciousness: a sapling bending in hurricane winds, scarred but standing; a sword forged in flame, forever changed by the heat but made stronger; my own face in a mirror, familiar, yet subtly different.

  It was hard to tell if time was moving at normal speed inside my soul like this but I knew there wasn’t any time left to debate this if I wanted to save Lyren. I remembered Lyren hurling herself at that boar bear monster without hesitation, risking everything to save a stranger. If I refused to do this, we would both die or even worse become abominations of corruption and hunger.

  But if I do what Nyxora wants, I could at least save Lyren, even though she could become a slave and I might become a monster in the process.

  I only hesitated for a moment. My arm pushed through my soul shell, fingers closing around a writhing strand of the violet sludge that fought against my grip like a live eel. Before it could slip away, I yanked it through the barrier.

  In an instant the breach opened like a floodgate. A torrent power surged through the opening I'd created, a purple tide rushing into the sanctuary around my true soul. I moved toward the glowing white orb at my center, the struggling thread of violet essence still clutched in my hand. When I reached my true soul, I pierced its luminous surface with Nyxora’s ‘gift’, threading it through like a tailor stitching darkness into light.

  A scream tore through my soul—not a human sound, but something like massive metal sheets being ripped apart while a train whistle blared. The echo reverberated through my entire existence. In my physical body, agony exploded in my chest as though I'd driven a blade directly into my heart.

  Within my soul-space, my projection wavered and distorted as violet corruption seeped into my pristine white core. The purple essence poured in relentlessly, yet rather than being overwhelmed, the white radiance neither resisted nor yielded. Instead, it enveloped the intrusion, threading it through itself until something entirely new emerged from their union. With each pulse, my true soul expanded, finally stabilizing at more than double its original dimensions.

  As the agony subsided, my flickering form stabilized. I rose to my feet within the soul-space, watching lavender radiance bathe every contour of my avatar. This wasn't just power I'd borrowed or channeled—it had fused with my essence, becoming as much a part of me as my own heartbeat.

  Then—violent displacement. My consciousness hurtled back into flesh with such force that my physical lungs seized. I dragged in a desperate breath, vision clearing to reveal Nyxora's face hovering above mine, her lips curled in triumphant satisfaction.

  "Yes. Good," she whispered, each syllable dripping with possession. "You are perfect now."

  I blinked back to awareness, surprised to find myself still... me. Mostly me, anyway. My hands flew to my face, tracing features that felt familiar yet somehow refined. The bestial aspects of my first transformation had receded—no more grotesquely stretched limbs or mouthful of serrated teeth. I ran my palms down my torso, discovering a physique that belonged on a fitness magazine cover rather than the average body I'd inhabited my whole life. Only my fingertips ended in something inhuman: gleaming black claws that caught the dim light like polished volcanic glass.

  A wet, choking sound pulled me from self-inspection. Lyren lay beside me, her body convulsing with each labored breath. I whipped my head toward Nyxora.

  I pushed myself up to face her. "I've done your ritual. Now tell me how to save Lyren." The words rumbled from my chest in a voice I barely recognized as my own. Nyxora's violet gaze pierced mine, her expression flickering with what might have been disappointment before vanishing behind practiced poise.

  “I see. Well played, Sycara,” she said quietly, her face becoming a neutral mask for a moment. Then her perfect smile reappeared like nothing had happened. “Very well, my pet, we will do things your way for now. Place your hand back on the center of her chest.”

  She tsk-tsked me. “Bare skin, please. No barrier can exist between you.”

  Nyxora caught my expression and turned away with theatrical indifference.

  “This is how a soul bonding is done. If you don’t believe me then let her die. See if I care.”

  “Fine.” I growled, already hating what I was going to do to save Lyren but now this damn woman wanted me to sexually assault the unconscious woman as well.

  I’m definitely going to hell for this.

  Frowning, I untied the straps of Lyren’s chest guard and ripped open her blood stained tunic. I placed my hand on the clammy skin between her small, pert breasts, which were now covered in the wriggling, neon-orange veins.

  “Now, seek out her soul, as you did your own,” Nyxora instructed, her feigned disinterest vanishing, revealing yet another manipulation.

  I closed my eyes and immediately felt my awareness sink through my palm into her chest. My senses found her energy right away. The process was so smooth and easy, something I could only attribute to the changes with the magic inside me.

  Similar to mine, Lyren had two distinct magical currents flowing through her body, making me wonder if that was considered normal. The first current, a stormy, grayish-white energy, whipped and churned like a tempest, explaining the wind magic she'd wielded against the boar creature.

  Alongside it flowed something different: a deep forest- green stream shot through with paler emerald ribbons. This second current must have generated that protective aura I'd seen earlier. Unlike the frenetic wind magic, this energy pulsed with the measured rhythm of ancient growth, like the heartbeat of some primeval forest.

  Where my own magic had flowed through rigid, defined pathways, Lyren's drifted in meandering streams of light that reminded me of watching the northern lights with my parents in Canada years ago. The ethereal rivers twisted with each beat of her heart, their patterns so mesmerizing I nearly forgot why I was here. But there was no ignoring the corruption spreading through her essence—black, thorny tendrils pulsing with that sickly amber Darroch glow. Wherever this parasitic darkness touched Lyren's luminous magic, it choked the light away, consuming her from within like some invasive fungus devouring a healthy tree.

  I followed Lyren's magic through the corruption until I discovered her soul shell, an enormous emerald sphere with silvery-gray currents swirling through it completely surrounded by thorny black vines that looked like they were made of crude oil. The thorns pressed deeply into the shell around Lyren’s soul which was much more pliable than my own. The bubble gave but had not been penetrated by thorns yet, though it was obvious she couldn’t resist much longer.

  I summoned all of my will to create an avatar of myself outside Lyren's soul, just as I had done within my own spiritual realm. This phantom me reached out, pressing its palm against the translucent barrier encasing her true soul. All around the shell, writhing tendrils of corruption constricted like pythons, creating distended bulges where the barrier weakened under their assault. Obsidian barbs raked across the surface, probing for any vulnerability. I could feel her through this translucent wall, Lyren's indomitable spirit still battling, though her strength wavered beneath overwhelming torment and the looming certainty of defeat.

  “Now,” Nyxora’s voice came from far away again. “You must enter her soul shell and claim her true soul before the Darroch’s corruption can taint it.”

  I called out to Nyxora, asking how to breach the soul-shell, but her voice had faded to nothing. Both times I'd ventured this close to a soul's essence, her connection to me had grown tenuous. That couldn't be a coincidence.

  Before I could call again, something else answered. A presence unfurled in my consciousness, not with words, but with impressions that crystallized into understanding. The bird-eyed entity. Its guidance flowed into me with newfound clarity, revealing exactly how to proceed.

  My avatar's hand pressed against the bubble shell surrounding Lyren's soul. I channeled my will through it and pressed forward. The barrier yielded, swallowing my arm to the elbow before resistance stopped me. Lyren's essence recoiled violently. Bright green lightning arced across my spectral flesh while invisible blades of wind sliced through my forearm.

  The pain tore a curse from me, but I pushed deeper until my shoulder nearly disappeared into the barrier. Then progress halted completely. Her defensive magic intensified, each surge eroding pieces of my spiritual form. If my avatar dissolved completely while trapped here, I sensed the consequences would be catastrophic, perhaps irreversible.

  My consciousness reached for hers across the void. “Lyren! It's Myles! Let me in!” The words formed not as sound but as desperate pulses of intent. “I can help you fight this, but only if you let me!”

  The magical barrage continued unabated, each strike eroding more of my spectral form. I braced to withdraw, knowing my avatar couldn't withstand much more. Then Lyren's spirit convulsed, a tremor of recognition that rippled through her entire soul space. The resistance around my arm vanished instantly, its attacks transforming into a desperate embrace that drew me inward. My avatar slipped through the membrane, submerging into her innermost self like sinking into impossibly warm waters. The thorned vines of corruption tried to follow me inside but Lyren’s barrier kept them out for the moment.

  Once I was inside I moved quickly to Lyren's true soul. The eye had shown me how to create the soul bond. I pushed tendrils of my power out through my claws puncturing the exterior of her fragile core, infusing it with my essence.

  The moment my power touched her core, the corruption beyond her soul's barrier erupted in violent protest. The black vines thrashed against her defenses with concussive force, releasing otherworldly wails that threatened to shatter my spectral form into fragments of dissolving thought. In the physical world, Lyren's back arched off the ground as darkness spewed from every orifice of her face. The skin of my palm blistered and sloughed away while energy channeled through me into her body, her essence consuming my offering with desperate hunger. Within the spiritual realm, I watched as her fading soul kindled, then blazed with renewed brilliance, like a star bursting into existence from cosmic darkness.

  The shift was unmistakable, Lyren’s will surrendered to mine like a fortress lowering its drawbridge. The violation twisted my gut worse than any grief I'd known, even the hollow emptiness when I'd learned my parents had died.

  Nyxora could call it salvation all she wanted, but I recognized that the raw truth was I was enslaving another person and every principle I'd ever valued screamed in protest..

  I recoiled, trying to withdraw, but Lyren's essence followed clinging to my spectral form with the frantic grip of someone being swept downstream. Bile rose in my throat as I struggled against the connection. The more I fought, the more a shimmering cord materialized between us, connecting Lyren's essence to my clawed hand. The bond thread crystallized, countless gossamer filaments intertwining until they wove into an unbreakable spiritual tether.

  Her consciousness flooded into mine through this bridge, desires, fears, and secrets pouring across the boundary I desperately tried to maintain. But despite my best efforts I caught glimpses of Lyren’s most private memories.

  Lyren as a child, training with a beautiful red haired warrior that must have been her mother. The woman moved like a dancer, sliding around the staff strikes of young Lyren playfully like a game of tag. Eventually Lyren overextended and the woman tackled her to the ground, tickling the disappointed Lyren until her scowl broke and both of the elves were laughing so hard they could barely breathe.

  Lyren stood before a king. The elven monarch was glorious in his green robes and silver crown, but his face was contorted in anger as he demanded Lyren to obey his commands or never stand before him again. Lyren turned and walked away, her face neutral but eyes glistening with unshed tears.

  A dark room filled with the scent of sweat slicked flesh and desire. Flashes of blue skin gently caressing Lyren’s body, the pleasurable sensations so torturously slow she thought she was going to lose her mind. Her back arched trying to press into the flickering tongue and soft lips trailing their way down her stomach. Lyren knew she had never felt this way about anyone before. Could this be love?

  The Glimmerwood was bright but the air was filled with the scent of blood. Lyren didn’t want to see what was ahead but she had no choice. Climbing down a rocky ravine she found them. The two sealgair that hadn’t returned from their mission. Not much was left of them, the scavengers having picked at the corpses for a full day. Lyren scared any remaining creatures away with a blast of wind and gathered any personal belongings that could be returned to their families. She hadn’t known either of the hunters well, having graduated the academy after her but she heard they were both capable. How many more would be lost to these accursed woods?

  I tore myself from the cascade of memories flooding through me. Had seconds or hours passed while I'd been trapped in Lyren' s consciousness? It felt like she was trying to show me, no more like give me, everything there was about herself. Yet my soul remained like a fortress, absorbing everything she offered while revealing nothing of myself in return.

  The violet beast inside me purred with satisfaction. Take what is rightfully yours now. Her flesh. Her will. Her eternal loyalty. A shameful heat spread through me at the thought, contradicting the revulsion I'd felt moments before.

  "No," I growled, nauseated by how quickly that foreign presence had awakened something predatory in me. I looked down at the solidifying connection between us, the glowing cord that would bind Lyren’s soul to me completely.

  "Damn it, Lyren," I whispered. "I don’t have any fucking idea what is right or wrong anymore but what I do know is that if we are going to be stuck together forever, it should be as equals."

  I pushed every shred of willpower I had left and attacked the bond itself, knowing full well I might destroy us both. My physical body convulsed as I tore the glowing strand from my avatar’s palm, driving it through the barrier of my own soul.

  At first both my magical aspects recoiled from this violation of natural order, but when it became clear I was going to do this or kill myself trying, both violet and white threads of power wrapped themselves around the fray ends of dimming soul bond. The threads merged with those of the bond weaving together a bridge between it and my soul. But the connection was weak. I could feel the structure unravelling faster than new threads could connect.

  The failure was clear, my soul's dual nature worked against itself. While the white essence strained to assist me, the violet power bristled at the very concept of equality.

  "Listen to me," I snarled inwardly at the violet presence. "We share this body. I won't pretend to master you, but you don't command me either. Help me finish this, or we both die right here, right now!"

  The beast within me howled in furious protest before recognizing the immutability of our situation. Grudgingly, it surrendered its formidable energy into the bond. The connection crystallized instantly, thicker and more substantial than before, like a rope where there had been only thread.

  Whether this strength came from the direct soul-to-soul link or something else entirely remained a mystery for another time. As the bond sealed completely, I felt simultaneously naked and wholly embraced in a way I'd never known possible. Lyren's energy and mine collided violently, memories and emotions crashing together until my consciousness couldn't withstand the onslaught.

  My awareness snapped back to my physical form for a fleeting second as darkness encroached from all sides.

  "You are most infuriating, my pet," came a distant, irritated voice, the last thing I heard before consciousness fled entirely.