Even after retreating to the hidden chamber, Alina could feel the tension Kael and Riven had ignited, a pull in her veins that neither shadows nor fire could fully dissipate. Kael’s violet eyes, dark and commanding, had haunted her all evening, and the memory of Riven’s golden heat brushing her shoulder made her body ache in ways she hadn’t yet learned to name.
Kael waited in the center of the chamber, shadows pooling around him like liquid silk, reacting to his presence with a sentient awareness that made the hairs on her arms rise. He did not speak at first, allowing her to feel the pull, the charge, the weight of anticipation that lingered from the dance. The Veil whispered faintly, its hunger pressing at the edges of her mind, but she centered herself on him, on the dark heat that coi
