Chapter 68 – The Mark Breaks
The night sky over Aeloria bled red beneath the twin moons.
Wind howled through the forest, carrying the scent of smoke and decay. The air itself seemed to shudder, charged with tension — the kind that comes before something gives way.
Kaelen stood alone at the edge of the Vale, where the mountains carved black scars into the horizon. His claws dug into the frozen earth, his breath coming in ragged bursts that misted in the cold.
The mark on his chest — the one that bound him to Seren — pulsed erratically beneath his skin, a constant, burning reminder of everything he was trying to suppress.
Every heartbeat sent a shock through him. Every pulse of that golden light felt wrong now. Twisted. Dissonant.
It had started earlier that day — a faint ache, a flick
