Chapter 571: The barrier

The morning of their flight to Draxil began with Theodore refusing to put on his shoes.

He sat on the bench inside the private dressing room with one socked foot tucked beneath him, his small travel jacket already buttoned, dark hair combed neatly away from his forehead, and both shoes untouched on the carpet beside him while Matthias waited near the door with the patience of a man who had once survived almost a century inside an infected forest and had somehow discovered that a four-year-old could still test him.

Dean stood in front of Theo with his hands on his hips.

“The car leaves in fifteen minutes.”

“I know.”

“You packed your dragon book.”

Theo nodded.

“Your bear.”

Another nod.

“Your tablet.”

“Yes.”

“And approximately seventeen things you absolutely did not need because Matthias gave up arguing with you.”

Matthias looked toward the ceiling.

Theo remained serious.

“I can’t go.”

Dean stared at him.

“Why?”

Theo looked toward the western windows.

Dean did not need the answer.

“Oh.”

Arion emerged from the bedroom, fastening the cuff of his dark travel shirt, took one look at their son’s expression, and stopped.

“What happened?”

“Apparently we have an international incident.”

Theo frowned.

“Dragon will be alone.”

Arion’s face went still.

Dean saw it immediately.

Over the past several weeks, the ancient being had gone from something distant and unsettling to a regular presence pushing against the edge of their household through Theodore. It no longer woke Theo at night after Dean threatened it repeatedly, and it had mostly learned not to interrupt meals or lessons, but the connection remained.

Theo had become accustomed to it.

Arion had not.

Dean crouched and picked up one of Theo’s shoes.

“You are going to Draxil with us.”

“But Dragon—”

“Dragon has survived longer than everyone in this room combined.”

Matthias’s mouth twitched.

Dean slipped the shoe onto Theo’s foot.

“He will manage.”

Theo looked genuinely worried.

“He doesn’t like being alone.”

That sentence made something in Arion’s expression tighten.

Dean noticed but continued fastening the shoe.

“Then he can come with us.”

Theo blinked.

Matthias turned his head sharply.

Arion slowly looked at Dean.

Dean smiled pleasantly toward the windows.

“If he is so concerned about being separated from you for four days, he is welcome to get up, leave the forest, pass palace security, obtain travel documents, and board the plane.”

A deep vibration moved through Arion’s connection.

Displeased.

Dean raised his eyebrows.

“There. He heard me.”

Theo almost smiled.

Another grumble rolled through the bond.

This one carried enough irritation that even Matthias’s expression changed.

Dean picked up the second shoe.

“Apparently he declines.”

Theo’s shoulders dropped.

“But he wants me to stay.”

Arion spoke before Dean could answer.

“No.”

The word was quiet.

Theo looked toward him.

Arion crossed the room and crouched in front of their son, resting one hand against his knee.

“You do not change your life because something in that forest wants your attention.”

Theo listened carefully.

“You can like him. You can talk to him when we allow it. One day, when you are older, and we understand what he is, you may decide whether you want to meet him.”

Arion’s golden eyes hardened.

“But he does not decide where you go.”

Theo glanced toward the window again.

The ancient presence shifted.

Arion felt it immediately.

Pressure moved through him toward Theo, familiar now in a way Arion increasingly hated, and for the first time he became sharply aware of his own position inside that connection.

Everything between them passed through structures that belonged partly to him.

The forest.

The beasts.

The old corrupted network.

Theo had been born capable of reaching it, but Arion was still the active center holding most of those pathways open.

He was the bridge.

And suddenly he had enough.

“Arion?”

Dean had noticed the change.

Black lines surfaced beneath the skin of Arion’s wrists.

His pheromones deepened, vetiver carrying that darker metallic undertone the entire household recognized now.

Matthias straightened.

Theo watched his father without fear.

Arion closed his eyes.

He found the connection easily.

Theo, bright and young at one end.

The ancient being at the other.

Something vast stirred beneath the northern forest as Arion touched the pathway between them.

It immediately resisted.

Arion’s anger sharpened.

“You do not get to pull at my son whenever you feel lonely.”

The being grumbled through the connection.

Arion did not care.

He reached deeper.

For years, he had learned to call beasts, stop them, quiet them, restore bodies, and separate individual infected minds from the larger network. He had always treated the connection as something inherited from corruption, something he could influence without fully owning.

Now he used it like something that belonged to him.

The pathway narrowed.

The ancient presence reacted at once.

A heavy pulse struck back through the bond.

Dean stepped closer.

“Arion.”

“I’m fine.”

And he was.

This required none of the violent biological reconstruction that had nearly collapsed his body while restoring Marius.

He was not changing anything.

He was closing a door.

Arion pushed until the connection was mostly severed.

He would never sever something permanently from Theodore without knowing what it meant.

Instead, he built a boundary across it, dense enough that the ancient presence became little more than a distant pressure beyond a locked wall.

Theo inhaled.

His black eyes widened.

Then slowly returned to gold.

The room became extraordinarily quiet.

“Dada?”

Arion opened his eyes.

Theo looked confused rather than frightened.

“I can’t hear him.”

“I know.”

Dean studied Arion’s face.

“What did you do?”

“I blocked him.”

Matthias stared.

“You can do that?”

“Apparently.”

The ancient being hit the barrier.

Once.

A dull vibration passed through Arion without reaching Theo.

Again.

Harder.

Arion’s expression darkened.

“No.”

The pressure stopped.

Dean looked toward him.

“You’re angry.”

“Yes.”

There was no attempt to deny it.

Arion rested both hands around Theo’s smaller ones.

“This barrier stays until you are old enough to decide whether you want it removed.”

Theo frowned.

“How old?”

“I don’t know yet.”

“That’s not a number.”

Despite himself, Dean almost laughed.

Arion’s mouth softened slightly.

“No. We’ll decide later.”

Theo considered it.

“Dragon will be sad.”

“Probably.”

“Is he bad?”

Arion shook his head.

“I don’t know.”

That mattered.

He was not going to teach Theo to fear something simply because Arion did not understand it.

“But adults do not make children responsible for their loneliness.”

Theo went quiet.

That explanation seemed to reach him.

After several seconds, he nodded.

“Okay.”

Dean finally exhaled.

Matthias retrieved Theo’s small travel bag from beside the wardrobe.

“The car is waiting.”

Theo slid from the bench.

Then he paused and looked toward the windows one last time.

Nothing answered him.

For the first time in weeks, there was only silence.

Arion expected guilt; instead, he felt relief.

Dean came beside him while Theo followed Matthias into the corridor.

“You really blocked an ancient creature because it interfered with our travel schedule.”

Arion looked at him.

“I blocked an ancient creature because it was making our four-year-old feel responsible for it.”

Dean’s expression softened.

“Much better reason.”

Arion took his hand.

Behind the barrier, something distant grumbled again.

Arion ignored it.

They had a plane to catch.