Elaras POV
No one moved right away after I said it.
The word settled into the space between us, heavy in a way that made the air feel tighter, like the forest itself had gone still just to listen, and I could feel it, the shift that followed, subtle but undeniable, like something unseen had turned its attention fully toward us.
Toward me.
Kael didn’t release the reins, but I felt the change in him, the way his focus sharpened without turning away from the temple ahead, his arm still firm around me like the only thing anchoring me to something solid in the middle of something that no longer felt entirely real.
“We don’t stop here,” he said quietly.
Not a question.
A decision.
Aria didn’t argue.
None of them did.
But the tension behind us got worse nyway, the kind that ca
