I didn’t tell Kael about the dream.
Not right away.
Not when he laid behind me in the Hollow’s chamber, arm draped protectively over my waist, breath steady like the whole world hadn’t just cracked open.
His touch grounded me.
But my thoughts spiraled.
You gave me the realm, she had said—my daughter, our daughter, the one not yet born. The one with eyes like wildfire.
But not your heart.
The morning came colder than it should’ve been.
Frost clung to the bones of the Hollow, and even the fire pits felt distant. Corvan’s wolves moved like shadows—silent, efficient, obedient.
And too many of them stared at me.
Not with lust. Not with fear.
With expectation.
Like I already belonged to something I hadn’t agreed to.
Kael was the first to speak.
“They want to make you into something
