POV: Aria
I woke gasping—not for breath, but for something I couldn’t name. It was like surfacing from the depths of a dark lake, expecting the rush of oxygen only to find the air itself had changed. Thinner. Colder. Foreign.
The ritual was over. But something had gone wrong.
I sat up slowly, the pelts tangled around my legs. The fire had long since died. Kael wasn’t beside me anymore. For a moment, I wondered if he’d ever been there at all, or if I had only imagined the warmth, the comfort, the safety of his presence in my delirium.
But no—his scent lingered in the space, threaded through every breath I took. That alone steadied me, kept the panic from rising completely.
Then I reached inward, as I always did.
And I felt it.
Nothing.
No presence. No rustle of thoughts. No familiar
