The storm broke at dawn.
Ariana had just begun to feel like her body belonged to her again. Her strength had been returning in stubborn trickles, each day a little more fire sparking through her veins. Kael still hovered, of course, his shadow stretching long and unyielding, but he no longer snatched every breath from her lips. He watched her with that predator’s intensity, but there was space now—space for her to breathe, to move, to feel the tether of her bond without suffocating beneath it.
That morning, the air shifted. She woke with a chill in her bones, a prickling that crawled beneath her skin like the echo of a scream.
Kael sensed it too. She felt his body stiffen beside her before he rose from the chair he had dragged next to her bed again. His nostrils flared, a low growl vibr
