[BL] I Didn't Sign Up For This-Chapter 60: In Which I Learn My Inheritance Includes Terrible Ideas

Chapter 60: In Which I Learn My Inheritance Includes Terrible Ideas

"How bad is it?" Mara asked, her voice tight as the van raced through the darkness.

I looked down at Azryth. He was unconscious now, barely breathing, the binding was going haywire, his pain and my panic feeding back on each other in a vicious cycle that made it hard to think.

The wound on his chest was spreading, black veins radiating outward from the impact site like cracks in glass.

"Bad," I said, my voice breaking. "Really bad."

Henrik was already pulling out medical supplies, but his expression was grim. "Necrotic poison specifically designed to destroy infernal essence, it’s also meant to sever bindings and break the anchor between demon and vessel."

"Can you treat it?" I asked desperately.

"I can try to slow it down, but Riven, you need to understand, this poison is designed to be fatal, even for demon lords." He was already working, hands moving over the spreading darkness. "And if it breaks the binding before killing him...."

"We both die," I finished. "I know. So fix it."

"I’m trying!"

I felt Azryth’s life force wavering, the poison was eating through him, consuming his essence from the inside out, and underneath that, I felt something worse, the binding itself was fraying. The connection between us was starting to unravel.

Terror spiked through me.

If the binding broke, we’d both die, that was non-negotiable, fundamental to how the magic worked.

"The binding," I said. "It’s breaking, I can feel it."

Henrik cursed. "That’s the poison’s secondary function, it doesn’t just kill, it severs supernatural connections."

"How long do we have?"

"Minutes..or less." He looked at me, and there was something like pity in his eyes. "I’m sorry, Riven. I don’t know how to stop this."

No.

No, that wasn’t acceptable.

I’d just gotten used to having Azryth around, to fighting beside him, to the binding humming between us like a second heartbeat, to the way he looked at me every time, like I was something worth protecting.

I wasn’t losing that now.

The seal on my wrist pulsed frantically, and suddenly I knew, the same way I’d known how to manifest the spectral blade, the same way I’d known how to close rifts.

Inherited knowledge surfacing when I needed it most.

"Move," I told Henrik.

"Riven, what are you..."

"Move!" I practically shoved him aside, pressing both my hands over Azryth’s chest where the poison was worst.

The seal flared bright, responding to my desperation.

I didn’t know exactly what I was doing. But the knowledge was there, buried in the inheritance my mother had left me. Techniques for anchor bonds, for stabilizing connections that should have killed their wielders, for surviving the impossible.

I pulled on the binding, but not the way I usually did. This time I pulled the damage through, drew the poison into myself through our connection.

The effect was immediate and agonizing.

Fire exploded through my veins. Not metaphorical fire, actual burning, like my blood had been replaced with acid. The necrotic poison flooded into me, and every nerve ending screamed in protest.

I heard someone shouting my name. Henrik, maybe. Or Mara.

I didn’t care.

I felt Azryth’s essence stabilizing, the poison was leaving him, transferring to me instead, the fraying connection between us started to heal as I absorbed the curse designed to sever it.

But holy shit, it hurt.

The black veins were spreading up my arms now, I could see them beneath my skin, dark and wrong and absolutely not supposed to be there. 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

"Riven, stop!" Henrik grabbed my shoulder. "You can’t absorb demon-killing poison! You’re human!"

"I’m a Kael warden with an active inheritance seal," I gasped. "I can do things other wardens can’t."

At least, I hoped I could.

The seal on my wrist was blazing now, so bright it hurt to look at directly. Power was flooding through me, not mine, not Azryth’s, but something older, ancestral magic responding to crisis the way it was designed to.

The poison hit my chest, and I felt it try to do what it was designed for, sever, destroy, kill.

But the seal was faster.

It wrapped around the curse, contained it, neutralized it with brutal efficiency. Not eliminating it entirely, but transforming it into something my body could survive.

I was still going to feel like death for a while, but I wasn’t going to die.

Probably.

The black veins stopped spreading, started to fade, slowly, as the seal processed the poison.

And I felt Azryth’s consciousness returning, his pain receding, and his essence stabilizing.

We were going to live.

Both of us.

The realization hit, and I promptly collapsed.

Henrik caught me before I could crack my head on the van floor.

"You absolute idiot," he said, but his voice was shaking. "You genius absolutely insane idiot."

"Did it work?" I managed.

"You absorbed demon-killing poison through your binding and somehow convinced your inheritance seal to neutralize it." He was checking my pulse, my eyes, the black veins that were slowly fading from my skin. "Yes, it worked, you’re both alive. You’re also possibly the most reckless warden I’ve ever met."

"I’ll take it."

Beside me, Azryth stirred, his eyes opened, unfocused and confused.

"Riven?" His voice was rough. "What... what did you do?"

"Saved your life. You’re welcome."

"You pulled the poison into yourself." He tried to sit up, but failed. "You could have died."

"So could you, I made a choice."

"A stupid choice."

"A necessary one." I grabbed his hand, and the binding pulsed between us, damaged, strained, but whole. Still connected. Still us. "The poison was breaking the binding, we would’ve both died anyway."

He stared at me, something raw and vulnerable in his expression.

"You’re an idiot," he said finally.

"You’ve mentioned that."

"A brilliant idiot."

"Better."

Mara’s voice cut through from the front seat. "Hate to interrupt the moment, but we still have hunters and Covenant on our tail. They’re gaining."

Right. We’d escaped the immediate crisis but not the actual pursuit.

I tried to sit up, and the world tilted dangerously. Everything hurt, my chest felt like it was on fire, and the black veins, while fading, still traced dark patterns under my skin.

"Easy," Henrik said, steadying me. "You just absorbed enough poison to kill a demon lord. You need rest."

"We don’t have time for rest."

"Make time," Azryth said, his hand tightening on mine. "You can barely sit up."

"Neither can you."

"I’m more than five hundred years old. I’ve had worse." But his voice was weak, and through the binding I felt how much effort it was taking him just to stay conscious.

We were both a mess, wounded, exhausted, barely functional.

And our enemies were closing in.

"I can shield us," Henrik said, already pulling out equipment. "Temporarily mask our magical signatures, it won’t hold long, but it might buy us enough time to find shelter."

"How long?" Mara asked.

"An hour. Maybe two if we’re lucky."

"Then we need to find somewhere to hide in the next hour." Mara took a sharp turn, and I felt Azryth wince beside me. "Somewhere they won’t think to look."

"Suggestions?" I asked.

"I know a place," Henrik said. "Old warden safehouse, abandoned since the Covenant purges. It’s not on any current maps."

"How far is it?"

"Thirty minutes if we don’t get caught first."

Mara pressed harder on the accelerator, the van’s engine screamed in protest.

I leaned back against the van wall, still holding Azryth’s hand, I felt our life forces synchronizing again. Damaged but healing. The seal had done its job, saved us both from the poison designed to kill him and sever our connection.

My mother’s last gift, saving my life one more time.

"Thank you," Azryth said quietly.

"For what?"

"For not running when I told you to, for absorbing poison that should have killed you. For..." He paused. "For choosing to save me."

"Like there was a choice," I said. "We’re bound, your life is my life. Basic math."

"It’s not basic math." His eyes met mine. "You could have let the binding break, taken your chances, and found another way to survive."

"There was no other way, and even if there was..." I squeezed his hand. "I wasn’t leaving you."

Something shifted in his expression. Softened.

"Reckless," he said.

"Necessary," I corrected.

The van hit a pothole, and we both gasped as pain flared through our injuries.

"Thirty minutes," Mara called back. "Hold on."

I closed my eyes, focusing on the binding, on the steady rhythm of it, damaged but whole.

We’d survived.

Both of us.

But the black veins were still there under my skin, fading but present. The seal had neutralized most of the poison, but not all of it.

And I could feel it in my bones, this wasn’t over.

The curse was contained, but it wasn’t gone.