( Kael's POV )
The ruin smelled of damp stone and rot, but it felt safer than the open woods. Thick ivy draped across broken walls, shadows pooling in the cracks, the air heavy with dust. Kael pushed me deeper into the collapsed chamber, his body a barrier between me and the danger closing in.
The silence didn’t last long.
First came the crunch of boots on leaves. Then the faint scrape of steel. A whistle split the air, sharp and commanding, answered by another from the ridge above. They had us surrounded.
Kael’s chest rose and fell in steady, lethal rhythm, golden eyes burning like firelight. “Stay low. No matter what happens, Aria, don’t run until I tell you.”
My throat was dry. “Kael....”
His gaze cut to me, fierce, almost desperate. “Promise me.”
I swallowed the terror clawing
