Evaline:
The air around us grew warr, humming faintly. My fingers tingled, and I could almost see faint threads of light weaving between us - barely visible, but real enough to make my breath hitch. The glow was gentle, golden, pulsing softly in rhythm with my heartbeat.
Kieran didn’t move. His gaze was fixed on ...not in surprise, but in quiet awe.
The wound began to close, slowly at first, then faster. The blood vanished, and the skin started knitting together as though ti itself had reversed. Within monts, the cut was gone... no scar, no trace.
When it was done, I exhaled shakily and pulled back, staring at his unmarked palm. My chest felt heavy, my heart racing too fast.
He looked down at his healed hand, flexed it once, then t my gaze. The gold in his eyes was shining brightly... brighter than I had ever seen before. His golden-green orbs were filled with sothing that made my throat tighten.
"You did it," he said softly. "On your first try."
I blinked, my breath coming out uneven. "That... didn’t feel like magic," I admitted. "It felt... alive."
He nodded slowly, his expression thoughtful. "That’s because it is. What you just used isn’t inherited healing power, Evaline. It’s instinctive. Emotional. It responds to what you feel, not what you think."
I looked down at my hands, still faintly warm from the lingering energy. "It felt like sothing inside just... woke up."
"Exactly," he murmured, his voice low, almost proud. "That’s what makes you different from the others."
The silence that followed wasn’t empty. It was alive with quiet awe... and sothing deeper that neither of us said out loud.
After a long pause, Kieran smiled faintly, the proud curve of a ntor, yet the softness of a mate who cared deeply. "Lesson one - complete," he said. "And I think it’s safe to say you passed with flying colors."
A soft laugh escaped , half disbelief, half relief. "If that was the easy part," I said, brushing my hair back from my face, "I’m not sure I want to know what lesson two looks like."
His eyes glead with quiet amusent as he began closing the books. "You’ll find out soon enough."
But as I stood there, still feeling the echo of that warmth humming through my veins, I couldn’t shake the feeling that the test wasn’t just about healing. It was about control... trust... connection.
And sohow, I knew that whatever ca next wasn’t only going to test my power.
It was going to test .
* * *
It was well past eight when I finally stepped out of the study, the faint traces of healing energy still tingling at my fingertips. My head buzzed from everything that had just happened - the theory, the unexpected "practical," and Kieran’s maddening calm through it all. The man had actually cut himself just to make focus.
Who even does that?
And yet... it had worked.
I could still rember the look in his eyes when the wound vanished - quiet pride, the kind that spoke louder than any words. That mory alone had smiling all the way down the hall, my steps lighter than before.
I was still lost in thought when I heard faint voices coming from the living room. At first, I assud it was just River and Oscar, they were always talking about sothing or other when they weren’t working. But as I turned the corner and peeked in, my steps faltered.
"Draven?"
The dark-haired man lounging casually on the couch looked up, flashing that charming grin that always seed to make trouble feel like a perfectly good idea.
"Evening, sweetheart," he said, his voice low and amused. "You look like you have been through a war."
I blinked at him, half in surprise, half in disbelief. "What are you doing here? It’s Thursday... shouldn’t you be locked in the academy?"
"Academy was boring," he said with a shrug, rising to his full height. "So I thought I would drop by. River invited for dinner."
I shot a quick look at River, who was standing by the window with his hands in his pockets, looking far too calm. "You invited him?"
He gave a faint smile. "He was already determined to co. Besides, you could use a little break after your first lesson."
Draven’s grin widened. "I got to know about what happened yesterday. And let make this very clear that I’m extrely disappointed to know that you went out to have fun on your own even though you promised to wait for . You were being bad, Eva."
I opened my mouth, thinking of sothing to say in my defense, but he was already adding.
"But more than that, what really hurt was to know that you won the fights against both River and Kieran. How unlucky of to be absent from such epic monts. And no one cared enough to at least capture so videos for ."
Oscar snorted from the kitchen. "I was too busy enjoying the show to think about you, little bro."
Kieran, who had just entered behind , gave his brother a pointed look. "You are enjoying this far too much."
"I’m enjoying the fact that Eva made you both give in," Oscar replied with mock solemnity. "That’s history in the making."
Draven chuckled, moving closer and ruffling my hair like I was a kid. "You really do have a way of keeping these alpha males on their toes, don’t you?"
I swatted his hand away, trying not to laugh. "Soone has to keep you all in check."
The sound of shared laughter filled the room, soft and easy. It had been a while since the house felt this light - no tension, no sharp words, no weight pressing down on anyone. Just warmth, food, and familiar voices.
Dinner was simple - roasted vegetables, rice, grilled tofu, and steak. River poured wine, Kieran kept silently refilling everyone’s plates, and Oscar stole bites of Draven’s food just to annoy him.
When River asked about the lesson, I told them everything - from Kieran’s calm lectures to the part where he decided to stab himself.
Draven nearly choked on his drink. "He what?"
Kieran sighed deeply, muttering sothing about overreactions while I smirked at him. "He said it was to make understand pain," I added. "Apparently, theory wasn’t enough."
River shook his head slowly. "You really didn’t waste ti, did you?"
Oscar leaned back with a grin. "Knowing Kieran? I’m surprised he didn’t make her climb a cliff to test her balance first."
Kieran glared at him over the rim of his glass. "Don’t tempt ."
I laughed softly, shaking my head. "Honestly, I thought he was joking at first. But... it worked." My tone softened as I looked down at my hands. "I actually healed him. The energy felt alive... like it knew what to do before I did."
River’s gaze lingered on for a long mont, quiet pride glinting in his eyes. "That’s exactly what we needed to know," he said. "Your power doesn’t obey rules. It follows instinct."
"Honestly, I was thinking that it wouldn’t be that easy to make her power surface since she just found it. I thought we would need to work on her learning to summon it at will." Kieran confessed as he placed a piece of steak in my plate.
I nodded my head before adding, "I had sa thoughts. I thought I won’t be able to heal every ti or any ti I wanted... at least not until I learned to summon my power at will. But so far, it seems like my power doesn’t like holding back whenever I try to call for it."
The brothers looked thoughtful, their brains processing what Kieran and I just revealed.
It was River who spoke next. "Still, I feel like you will need to work on summoning your power. Don’t completely ignore this part just because the power has been coming to you naturally so far."
Both I and Kieran nodded our heads in understanding.
"Which ans her next lessons are going to be interesting," Oscar added lightly, raising his brows toward Kieran.
Kieran’s lips twitched. "That’s one word for it."
Draven leaned back with a lazy grin, his wine swirling in the glass. "Well, in that case, I’m definitely coming to watch. Soone’s got to make sure Kieran doesn’t end up bleeding again."
River exhaled, half amused, half exasperated. "You are not turning her training into a spectacle, Draven."
"Too late," he said cheerfully. "I already bought popcorn."
Everyone laughed... even River had a smile playing on his lips, though he tried to hide it.
For a mont, sitting there between them, I felt sothing the sa thing I had co to relate to their company - peace. The kind that cos quietly, when you realize the storm has passed.
Maybe tomorrow there would be more lessons, more secrets, and more challenges waiting to unravel. But tonight?
Tonight, I had my family - my mates, my son, my ho, and laughter echoing through the halls that once felt too silent.
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