“Kael—”
His name came out before I meant to say it. Maybe it was the fever setting in. Or the fear. Or the way his shadow didn’t look like a threat anymore, but something achingly familiar.
“How did you even get inside this place?” I whispered.
He stilled.
Half-turned toward the still-locked door, his body rigid, jaw clenched. The torchlight painted sharp lines across his handsome face, and for a long moment, he didn’t answer. Then he slowly turned back to me. Really looked at me. And there was something in his eyes I had never seen before.
Not in Varion.
Not in anyone.
“Veyra,” he said quietly,
“This prison cell isn’t built to keep me out.”
Something cold and bright shivered up my spine. Varion’s words flickered through my mind:
He can pull magic from the stars. Or so the sto
