16-
We’re both still. Breathing, but barely.
Not because we’re tired… but because something changed. Something real. Something irreversible.
I can feel him — not just in the way I always have, not like the mate bond or the soft hum of Ailm in the background. This is deeper. Wilder. Terrifyingly clear.
His thoughts are my thoughts.
His breath is mine.
And when his fingers twitch… I feel it. Like they’re mine too.
Panic flutters in my chest, not from fear exactly — but from awe. From the impossibility of it.
I twist on his knee, searching for something — anything — to prove what my soul already knows. My eyes land on a letter opener on the desk. I snatch it before I can think twice.
“Baylee—” Caden starts, but I’ve already drawn it across my palm.
Pain flashes like lightning, hot a
