POV: Aria
⸻
The moment Kael touched my hand, the world shifted.
Not physically. Not completely. But deeply—like something had clicked into place after too long misaligned.
I felt him.
Not just beside me.
Inside me.
The bond surged like wildfire through a dry forest, desperate to catch. It clung to every fractured piece of me: my grief, my guilt, my yearning. And it held.
But it also fed the other thing growing inside me.
The Echo Bride didn’t pull away.
She leaned in.
She whispered, “Yes. Let him hold you. It only makes us stronger.”
⸻
My knees buckled beneath the weight of everything—the ruins, the altar, the pressure inside my chest. Kael caught me before I hit the ground, and in his arms, I didn’t feel like I was falling anymore.
“I see her,” I murmured, trembling.
“Who?”
