POV: Aria
The mark on Kael’s chest hadn’t stopped glowing since the forest encounter.
Even now, hours later, the flicker of unnatural light throbbed beneath his skin like a second heartbeat—slow, deliberate, and terrifyingly sentient. I stood at the foot of the bed where he now lay, jaw clenched, muscles rigid, as if bracing against a pain too deep to name.
I had seen many kinds of magic in my life. Light and dark. Old and forbidden. But this… this was something else.
This was ancient.
And it wanted something from him.
⸻
“I need to find the Whispering Path,” I said aloud, more to myself than to anyone else. The phrase had echoed in my dreams since the Hollow fell, like a whisper I couldn’t shake. Kael stirred at the sound of my voice, but his eyes didn’t open. Not yet.
I pulled on
