"Kael, I won't do that. I am unable to.
The urgency in my voice was genuine, yet the words escaped my lips before I could stop them. My senses were strained and overextended, and my body was still trembling from the Blood Moon's aftermath. Kael was urging me to plunge back into the maelstrom that had almost engulfed me, and I had just about recovered control over it. to accept the authority I had been evading.
He was standing in front of me, his jaw clinched, his eyes staring at me with such intensity that I gasped. The world seemed to be holding its breath in waiting, and I could feel the thick, oppressive tension between us.
"You must," Kael replied in a quiet, almost stern voice. "Everything you've gone through will be in vain if you don't. Everything—the relationship, the power, eve
