Chapter Eleven
The Price of the Bond
Kael awoke with a scream lodged in his throat.
His body was drenched in sweat, muscles seizing, lungs burning like he’d swallowed fire. For a moment, he couldn’t remember where he was. Everything was dark — not the natural dark of sleep, but absolute. Like being buried.
Then he heard her voice.
“Kael.”
Soft. Urgent. Frightened.
Light flared in the cave.
Lyra knelt beside him, her palm pressed to his chest, her other hand trembling against his cheek. Her touch cooled the fire beneath his skin, but only slightly. He blinked until her face came into focus — pale, drawn, but whole.
He reached for her wrist and rasped, “What… what happened?”
“You collapsed,” she said. “Just after the bond sealed. Mira says it’s the backlash. The tether pulled somet
