Elara
The moonlight from the cracked sky still pulsed on the arena stones. The scent of smoke and old ash clung to the wind as if the ground itself had opened and bled its ancient secrets into the air. My body felt cold, but my soul burned.
Xavier stood like a statue near the rift, his chest still glowing faintly with the Moon's mark. His breath was steady, even though I knew he had just faced death in that duel. But it wasn’t his strength that stunned me now. It was his eyes.
He was looking at me.
Not the way he had looked at me before as Saraphina.
But at different.
Like he saw through the layers. Through the skin. Through the mask.
My wolf, Nova, stirred inside me. Her voice, always warm and silver, echoed quietly in my chest.
"He feels you," Nova whispered. "Not just her body.
