Chapter b544 /bSevered for Good

When bTessa /bdrove out of the city, she finally allowed herself a deep breath. She quietly disabled bthe /blocation–sharing function on her phone, then opened her private navigation app and switched the destination to the secret vi.

Thirty minutester, the ck sedan pulled into a concealed forest path. The viy hidden among bthe /btrees, with only a faint light glowing from a second–floor window–the nightlight she’d left on in advance, to illuminate theyout of the array.

As soon as she opened the vi’s front door, a rush of air hit her–thick with the scent of cold iron and ancient wolf sigils. In the center of the living room, the Sealing Array shimmered silver under the moonlight, exactly as described in the Wolf Codex, a nine–grid formation iid with crushed wolf bone powder. At its core sat a shallow indentation–justrge enough for the Moonstone.

“Are you ready?” Emma’s voice echoed in her mind, carrying a thread of tension.

Tessa nodded and locked the door behind her. She stepped into the center of the array and sat down. From her document folder, she took out the Moonstone, its surface glowing ice–blue in the moonlight, weaving into the silver lines of the array like a living web…

“It’s going to hurt,” Emma warned, her voice low and steady. “The lunar incantation will fight back. The silver ring will start burning, and then-‘

“”

“I know. But no pain could be worse than what I felt when I was forced into that bond.” Tessa cut her off, her fingers brushing the silver ring. She’d worn it for five years. It felt like it had grown into her bone. The words forever yours etched inside were already branded into her flesh.

She ced the Moonstone into the core of the array and bit her fingertip, letting her blood drip onto the crystal.

The Moonstone instantly burst into blinding blue light. Energy surged along the array lines, filling the room and locking into ce inside the iSealing /iiArray/i. Tessa’s ring finger seared with white–hot pain, like ia /ibranding iron pressed into her bone. The silver ring pulsed with ck light, shing violently against the Moonstone’s glow–the lunar energy trying to purify the curse, the curse wing back in its final death throes.

“Ugh…” A choked cry escaped her lips. Sweat beaded instantly on her forehead. The silver ring burned so intensely it felt like it was melting into her bone. The lunar incantation etched inside it stabbed upward like a thousand fine needles burrowing toward her heart–sharper than any blood pact re–up she’d ever endured.

“Focus!” Emma shouted. “Let the Moonstone’s energy flow through your blood–use it to drown the incantation!”

Tessa clenched her teeth, forcing herself to lean into the icy–blue current. It was like cial water, flooding through her veins, washing over every nerve. Wherever it touched, the ck glow of the curse dimmed- but with every inch it faded, the bacsh worsened. She could hear faint cracking sounds inside the ring- that was the resonance core Nathan had repaired with his own blood essence… now being annihted.

She didn’t know how long itsted.

When the Moonstone’s glow finally began to fade and the array’s silver light settled, the silver ring that bhad /bbound her for five years gave a sharp isnap /iand split clean in two–then clinked to the floor.

Her ring finger was finally free. Only a pale indentation remained, as if nothing had bever /bbbeen /bbthere /bat ball /b

bTessa /bbcopsed /bin bthe /bbcenter /bbiof /i/bthe barray/b, drenched in bcold /bbsweat/bb, /bbher /bbfingers /bbstill /bbtrembling/bb. /bBut when the blooked /bbdown /bbat /bthe shattered ring on the floor, augh escaped her–bshaky /bband /bbbreathless/bb, /bbbut /bbfull /bof relief

bIt /bbwas /bbover/bb. /bThe chain Nathan had forced on her was finally broken.

At that exact moment, far away in Yalvaria, deep in the Frost Pack territory, Nathan stood before ban /bbaltar/bb. /b

Without warning, the blood–bond silver ring on his left ring finger slipped off and ttered bagainst /bbthe /bbicy /b

stone.

His pupils shrank. He instinctively reached out, but his fingers grasped at empty air.

Wolf howled in his mind, a raw, guttural panic like nothing he’d ever heard. “It’s broken! The link bwith /bbher /bbis /bgone! The blood pact–it’s been severed!”

Nathan’s hands clenched, knuckles white.

He could feel it–viscerally, brutally–that soul chain that had connected them for five long years… ripped away like a lock torn loose, itsst echo already gone.

“Tessa…” he whispered her name, voice wrapped in a tangle of emotions. “You really arei… /imercilessb.” /b

Even thest thread between them–she’d severed it without hesitation.

Did she truly not feel even a shred of sentiment for what they once had?