POV: Aria
I felt him slipping.
Kael was still there—his scent, his arms around me in the middle of the night, the way he kissed my forehead before he thought I was awake—but something had shifted. Like a bridge cracking beneath too much weight, his presence in our bond had started to flicker.
And I couldn’t tell if it was because of me… or the thing inside me.
The Echo Bride hadn’t spoken again since the ritual, but I could feel her watching. Waiting. She pulsed behind my heartbeat like a second rhythm, threading herself deeper into my magic with every breath I took.
She wasn’t fighting me anymore.
She was settling in.
And that terrified me even more.
I stood by the small garden at the back of the packhouse, hands buried in the dirt just to feel something real. I could still smell
