Page 36 of Hex You Very Much


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"I can't," she gasped, her entire body beginning to glow with uncontrolled magic. "It's too much. I can't hold it back."

The inn groaned around them as another support beam cracked. Upstairs, something heavy crashed to the floor, and the mist creeping through the floorboards was spreading faster now, reaching for anything that contained life or magic.

"Then don't hold it back," Cade said, stepping directly into the path of her chaotic energy. "Channel it through me. Use the bond."

"I'll hurt you."

"You'll hurt everyone if you don't try." Cade held out his hands, palms up, his expression resolute despite the danger. "Trust me, Lyra. Trust us."

The word "us" hit her like a physical blow, carrying with it the weight of everything they'd shared and everything they could be if she just stopped running from the connection between them.

"I'm scared," she admitted, her voice barely audible over the storm's fury.

"I know," Cade said gently. "I'm scared too. But I'm not scared of you, or the bond, or what we might become together. I'm only scared of losing you."

The confession hung between them like a lifeline, and Lyra felt something shift in her chest. Not just the magical bond, but something deeper and more fundamental—the recognition that she wasn't facing this alone.

"You won't lose me," she said, reaching for his outstretched hands. "Not if I can help it."

The moment their skin touched, the connection between them blazed to life strong enough to make the air shimmer. But this time, instead of chaos, there was harmony. Cade's wolf energy wrapped around her magic like a stabilizing framework, giving her power direction and purpose.

The supernatural storm outside began to calm, its fury diminishing as the energy source that had been feeding it was channeled into more constructive patterns. The mist seeping through the floor retreated, unable to maintain its hold in the face of their combined strength.

But the inn was still failing around them, its structure compromised by the magical stresses it had endured.

"We need to get to the cellar," Cade said, his voice strained with the effort of maintaining their connection. "If we can reinforce the rune directly, we might be able to stabilize everything."

"Together?"

"Together," Cade confirmed, and the word carried promise that went far beyond their immediate crisis.

They made their way through the failing inn hand in hand, their combined magic holding back the worst of the structural damage. But Lyra could feel time running out—not just for the building, but for the seal beneath it and possibly for Mistwhisper Falls itself.

At the cellar stairs, she paused to look back at the parlor where she'd tried so desperately to leave.

"I was really going to run," she said quietly.

"I know," Cade replied. "But you didn't. When it mattered, when people needed you, you stayed and fought."

"How did you know to come?"

Cade's smile was rueful but warm. "Because I finally figured out that I'd rather risk everything with you than be safe without you. Because I love you, Lyra Whitaker, founder bond or no founder bond."

The words hit her like sunlight breaking through storm clouds, and for the first time since the crisis began, Lyra felt genuinely hopeful.

"I love you too," she said, and meant it with every fiber of her being.

Behind them, the Mistbound whispered its frustration into the darkness, but its voice was growing fainter as their bond grew stronger.

The real battle was just beginning, but no matter what came, they’d meet it as one.

14

LYRA

The cellar felt different when they descended the stairs together—not the chaotic maelstrom of uncontrolled magic that had characterized Lyra's previous visits, but something calmer and more purposeful. The founder's rune still glowed with blue-white light, its surface spider-webbed with cracks that leaked ancient power, but the frantic energy that had been building toward catastrophic failure had settled into something more manageable.

"It's responding to us," Lyra said, still holding Cade's hand as they approached the stone. "The bond—it's stabilizing everything."