The Gembound: The Price of Keeping Chapter 121: Volume 5: Chapter 110 – The Gift

Read chapter 121 of The Gembound: The Price of Keeping by Taliorn on NovelPedia.

Volume 5: Chapter 110 – The Gift Creation Under Pressure The pain in Yara’s back sharpened until it was no longer pain at all— It was building , splitting , becoming . Light poured from her spine in two searing lines. Sam roared and reached for her, But the energy around her pulsed outward in a shockwave so fierce it drove even him back a step. Harry staggered, bracing against a cracked pillar. The bears dug claws and blades into the stone to keep from being shoved away. “Yara!” Sam shouted again. She didn’t hear him. Or she did, but through layers of noise and fire and something deeper— the howl of the Gem, the steady whisper of Sapphire, and beneath them something older, something instinctive, something hers. The Gem screamed inside her. RELEASE. RELEASE NOW. CREATE. CREATION OR DEATH. YOU ARE TOO FULL. The Sapphire flickered behind her eyes. For an instant, she saw herself explode in a burst of raw light. Another flash showed her body burned hollow, empty as a cracked shell. A third vision showed her standing upright, with something vast and silver rising behind her, like the wings of living moonlight. Flashes. Possibilities. Warnings. Choices. Her back arched violently. And then the cracking began. Not bone-breaking bone-opening. Not skin-tearing, but the skin making way. The light behind her erupted outward, and two shapes of blinding white unfurled from her shoulder blades like molten sails. Wings. Not borrowed. Not stolen. Not transformed from something that existed. Created. Pure and absolute creation. Shadow-silver, bone-light yet vast, membranes shimmering with Gem-light threaded through every fiber. Yara gasped, feeling the weight and absence of weight all at once. The wings didn’t hurt. They felt inevitable. They felt like remembering something she had never lived. Harry stared, eyes wide, shard-light reflecting off the new wings. Sam’s jaw hung open, awe overtaking fear. Stonehide rumbled, voice reverent. “Alpha made wings.” Graveclaw bowed his head. “Not shaped. Born.” Shadowfang’s eyes glimmered. “Creation.” But it wasn’t finished. The flood inside her built again— a second wave of power demanding release. Her hands hit the stone. Instinct took over. She spun toward Sam first. White fire leapt from her palm and hit him square in the chest. Sam roared— not in pain but in shock As power ripped down his spine, opening seams behind his massive shoulder plates. His back cracked open, and two vast, bat-like wings burst free, unfolding with a leathery hiss. They were enormous, dark, powerful— built for carrying weight, for diving, for war. Sam shook himself, stunned. “Yara…?” But the power was already moving. Yara turned toward Harry. “No—” Harry tried to step back, but the shard had him locked in place. The surge hit him like a hammer. Light slammed into his chest and raced up his spine. His back split with a metallic shriek— silver-gold wings erupting outward in jagged segments like forged blades unfolding. They shimmered with shard resonance— alive, hungry, beautiful, terrifying. Harry gasped. “I can feel—everything.” But the creation still had not emptied her. Her gaze locked on Graveclaw next. He bowed his head once, accepting. The surge hit him, and iron-gloom wings burst from his back, ridged and jagged, shaped from metal memory and bear muscle— dark wings built for crushing dives and intercepting threats with brutal force. Stonehide came next. His wings exploded out in a rain of stone flakes— broad, heavy, plate-layered, like cliff faces turned into flight: not fast, but unstoppable. Shadowfang last. His wings unfurled in absolute silence— sleek, fast, shadow-thin, built for speed, gliding, striking unseen. He lifted them once, and the air shuddered. Still, the power surged. Still, it rushed through her, demanding more. Her breath hitched. Her wings flared. Her vision blurred. The Gem roared in triumph. YES. YES. THIS IS CREATION. NOT BINDING. NOT TRANSFORMATION. YOU MADE THEM. YOU MADE ALL OF THEM. Yara stumbl