The night closed over the clearing as if someone had turned off the light of the entire world.

  The air smelled of damp earth and residual ozone from Ryu’s gray fire. There were no flames. Ryu had said that his own flame no longer trusted itself after the rift; every attempt released only smoke and a faint sputter, as if the fire were afraid to burn. Rex spread his torn cloak on the ground, shook it to remove the clinging leaves, and sat with his back against a mossy rock. I stayed between them, a compact mass of iridescent obsidian that barely moved so as not to make a sound. Five red eyes blinking slowly in the dark. Three fewer than yesterday. The door inside me throbbed softly, breathing, waiting.

  Rex flexed his left hand. The rune Ryu had carved into him glowed dimly. He said nothing. He only stared at his palm, as if measuring how much more he could endure before I truly needed him.

  Ryu remained standing for a moment longer. He looked north, toward the direction of the waterfall that was no longer ours.

  "I’m not going to pretend this didn't happen," he said, his voice low, almost a growl. "You opened something. And now it weighs more."

  I compressed myself a bit further.

  it weighs… yes… the door breathes… and I breathe with it…

  Rex looked up.

  "How long before it pulls again?"

  Ryu took a while to answer. He finally sat, wings folded, tail still upon the dirt.

  "I don’t know. The first time was fast. As if it were waiting. The next… I don’t know if I can close it with runes alone."

  He extended a claw toward me. Not to burn. Only to point at the runes he had carved into me.

  "These close you. But every time the door pulls, they pull on us too. On Rex. On me. On you."

  Rex flexed his hand again.

  "Then teach me how to help. I’m not going to stand by and watch while Ryxar fights alone."

  Ryu let out a dry, humorless laugh.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  "It’s not something you’re taught. It’s something you endure."

  The silence returned. Heavier than before.

  I extended a pseudopod.

  Very slowly.

  Toward Rex’s hand.

  I wanted to touch.

  Just touch.

  I wanted to know if I could still be something that doesn't destroy.

  The pseudopod brushed his palm.

  It didn't dissolve skin.

  Rex didn't pull his hand away.

  His fingers closed around the pseudopod. Tighter. Despite the pain. Despite the rune that was already throbbing. Because if he didn't—if he let go of me now—I would go back to being just the thing from the cage. And he would stop being the only one who could save me.

  The door inside me pushed. It wanted to open. It wanted to taste the hand that had taken me out of the cage.

  I pulled back.

  no… not now…

  Too late.

  The rune opened like a fresh wound. From it sprouted a fine black thread that extended to Rex’s palm and sank itself there. A black, living rift that pulsed to the same rhythm as the door inside me.

  Rex let out a low grunt. He didn't let go. He squeezed tighter.

  Hot blood fell onto my pseudopod. One drop. Two. Three. Four.

  Ryu stood up abruptly.

  "He’s marked."

  Rex looked at the rift in his palm. It bled more.

  "Now… every time you get too close… this is going to pull harder."

  His voice didn't tremble. It belonged to someone who had already chosen.

  "Good," he said. "That way I'll know when you're about to break."

  Ryu took a step forward. Wings half-unfurled.

  "No."

  Rex looked at him.

  "No what?"

  Ryu pointed at the rift. At the blood.

  "Don't touch him again. Not while that thing keeps throbbing inside you. You’re killing him, Ryxar. Slowly. And he’s letting you. Because he’s too much of a coward to let you go."

  Rex closed his hand. The rift was hidden, but we all felt the pulse.

  "Ryu… he needs to know he isn't alone."

  Ryu cut him off.

  "And you need to know you aren't immortal. If the door pulls again near you… it won't just be blood. It'll be your arm. Or your life."

  Rex stood up.

  "Then let it pull."

  Ryu looked at him as if he were looking at an idiot.

  "You don’t understand. It’s not your hand. It’s your clan. And if it loses you…"

  He fell silent.

  Rex looked at Ryu. Then at me.

  "Then let it not lose me."

  As Rex squeezed, the door inside me whispered something dark.

  If he breaks… at least he will be mine. No one else will be able to touch him. No one else will be able to take him from me.

  I withdrew the pseudopod.

  The rift in Rex’s palm kept throbbing.

  Blood dripped.

  And the door inside me breathed harder.

  In the distance, among the trees to the north, torches appeared. Many of them. Movement.

  Ryu looked that way.

  "Lira."

  Rex closed his wounded hand.

  "We move now."

  I rolled behind them into the darkness of the forest.

  The door breathed.

  The rift in Rex’s palm breathed with it.

  And for the first time, I felt like it wasn't just me containing it anymore.

  It was the three of us.

  And it already knew how to break us one by one.

  (End of Chapter 6

  A touch that didn't destroy.

  A rift that stayed.

  A phrase that isn't forgotten.

  Torches approaching.

  And a group that has already started breaking from the inside.)