*Chapter 46:
*ALESSIA
Getting Kieran down from the tower felt like carrying something that had almost been lost, and the silence that followed us through the woods back to BloodNight was the kind that didn’t feel peaceful so much as held, like the land itself was waiting to see what we would do now that the thread was cut. The wards along the border didn’t hum the same way they had before, they vibrated under my skin with a warmth that hadn’t been there, and the air smelled of wet earth and something older, something that had been sealed away long enough to forget the taste of air. Kieran didn’t speak the whole walk, his eyes clear but distant, and every time I looked at him I saw the flicker of relief in Asher and Axel that they were trying hard not to show. Azriel stayed close to me,
