POV: Kael
⸻
Waking up from the Between felt like drowning in my own skin.
First came breath — sharp, ragged, full of dirt and blood and pine needles. Then came pain — my ribs screaming from the impact of hitting the forest floor, my shoulder flaring where the mark burned like a brand. Last came the cold. Not the cold of winter, but the cold I’d carried out of the Veil — a cold that clung to my bones like a memory I couldn’t shake.
I pushed up onto my hands, every muscle protesting. The trees around me were too quiet. No birds. No wind. No pack. Just me — and the thing standing five paces away, wearing my face.
It smiled.
I’d imagined my own smile a thousand ways — for Aria, for my people, for the kill. I’d never imagined it could look like this. Hollow. Hungry. Wrong.
“You came back
