The courtyard air still crackled with the residue of the Veil. Alina’s lungs ached with each inhale, the aftershock of creation trembling in her hands where the shadow-blade had dissolved moments before.
Riven didn’t move from her side. He lingered close enough that the heat of him pressed against her awareness, his eyes glinting with something she didn’t want to name.
“You felt it, didn’t you?” he asked at last, voice low, coaxing.
Alina swallowed hard, her mouth still dry from the strain. “It was like holding lightning. Like—if I blinked, it would slip away. But it didn’t.”
“It obeyed.” Riven’s grin curled sharp. “Not because you chained it. But because you wanted it badly enough to make it yours.”
Her pulse thrummed at the words, and not just because of the Veil. Something in the w
