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Tears streamed, a laugh bubbling up. He was free. Free!

A rumbling chuckle sounded in the distance, creeping like spiders across the expanse of himself as her power began to fade, drying up too soon.

No. No!

In a frenzy, he snatched whatever light he could, taking it into himself. They’d been so close. So bloody close.

Time and again, his little moon was unwittingly satisfied, ignorant and leaving him before that final severance from whatever beast had taken residence within his mind and body. Of the battle he was slowly but surely losing with every passing day.

Her all-consuming blaze faded to paltry bonfire, bonfire to candlelight, candlelight to pinprick, pinprick to…nothing.

Nothing. Nothing. Nothing.

Brand wanted to scream, left once more in the dank, isolating dark, only the barrier and its memories to keep him sane.

How much longer could he withstand it? How much longer before he was too weak to fight? Too far gone to know her? To find⁠—

Brand came to with a jolt, trying to hold on to that brief glimpse of himself. Of the knowledge he’d been gifted in that strange place. Of…of…

“Luna.”

He hauled upwards as gasps sounded, the word still on his lips. Or, at least, as far as the restraints around him allowed.

That feeling…

“No, no, no.” It was all a lie. He was still trapped. In her clutches. A prisoner. “Please, no!”

He had to fight. Had to get free and get home. Couldn’t do what she asked. The shame of it… The stain of such a betrayal…

Brand gagged for the thousandth time since the start of his captivity, saliva flooding his mouth as a cold flush erupted across his cheeks.

“Let him go!”

The stone melted away and Brand rolled to hands and knees, too far gone to hold on to that perfect voice. To feel the relief of his unfettered reality.

Instead, he vomited onto the floor and every heave, every retch, stole more away from him. He wanted to rage as the disjointed memories slipped like sand between his fingers. As midnight murmurs and fervent touches evaporated. He never even had a chance to…to…

What? To what?!

Fuck.

Something grinned inside and a whisper of the same expression flitted across his lips, despite the fact that he was practically choking on a sense of utter loss. The dissonance nauseated him all over again, but Brand swallowed it down, shaking himself as he settled back to a kneeling position.

“Aye, there he is. He’s alright.”

Shame and confusion twined like lovers as Brand dared to raise his head. Mag was crouched in front of him, locked in silent communication with someone outside Brand’s field of vision.

It was easier to speak with that golden stare fixed elsewhere. “I’m so sorry.” A flash of Thad’s battered face. “I don’t know what happened. I…” He slumped, not noticing the cool touch on his nape until it was gone, a throbbing pound in its wake.

The swelling pain felt like a revenge. Like Brand’s own body was bent on betraying him for some unintended offense.

A growl left him unbidden when he felt her again. Felt the burn and crawl that pumped fresh ire through his veins, fueling a primordial hatred.

The Sorcerit rounded him, tears dropping like diamonds from her quivering chin to stain the high neck of her training linens. She fell to her knees, uncaring of the mess he’d made, hands outstretched and suspended just shy of cradling his face. “Brand?” A shaky sigh, hope kindling. “You said my name,” she whispered, inching closer. “A-Are you…”

Shite, he almost believed she was sincere. Too bad those of her ilk were as treacherous as the most violent landscapes contained within the cosmos.

It was only appropriate. Her kind had created them, after all.