Kessler moved the instant I spoke, but this time there was no pause, no calculation that slowed him, no fraction of restraint left in the way he closed the distance between us, because whatever I had taken from him had already begun to show in the sharpness of his reaction.
I felt it immediately. Not through sight, but through the connection. Through whatever had been left open between us after that brief contact.
My body responded without thought, shifting just enough to meet his movement, my hand rising not in panic but with precise awareness as I intercepted his strike, my fingers locking around his wrist with a control that felt almost effortless.
The impact of his force traveled through me, but it did not unsettle me the way it should have, because the presence inside me absorbed i
