The Veilbound figure lunged forward, threads of shadow snapping toward Alina like jagged lightning. The world narrowed to the pulse of her mark and the heat of Kael pressed at her side. Every instinct screamed to run, but she didn’t—couldn’t. The threads inside her responded instantly, weaving outward with an intensity she hadn’t yet mastered, tangling with the shadows lashing at her.
Kael moved with lethal grace, a shadowed extension of her mark, intercepting the figure with a twisting sweep of energy. “Focus,” he murmured, voice low and commanding, lips brushing her ear. “Don’t react. Direct it. Control it. Let it feel what it can never claim.”
Alina’s fingers trembled as she extended the threads of her mark, lacing them with his shadowed energy. The Veil hissed, recoiling slightly, as
