Day seven. Four lines complete. Kael found me at the pool at midnight, which had become my unofficial practice time, when the Hollow was quiet and the pool was most responsive and nobody was watching me fail.
He sat down beside me without announcement. Close. The past weeks had compressed something between us, the distance he used to calibrate so carefully had narrowed to something that felt less managed and more natural, the way two people who have been through enough together stop performing their relationship and just have it.
"The conversation," he said.
I kept looking at the pool. "Yes."
"Cass told you about the soul-bond."
"She did."
"When were you going to tell me."
"When I figured out what I wanted to say about it." I looked at him. "I haven't figured it out yet."
He was qu
