The words stayed with me for the rest of the day.
You are safe.
No one had ever said those words to me before.
Not my parents.
Not my brother.
Not my sister.
Only Kael.
I hated how much those three simple words meant to me.
Because a small part of my heart had already begun to depend on hearing them.
And that frightened me more than the magic inside me.
That evening, rain fell softly over Moonridge.
Most of the villagers hurried indoors, but I welcomed the cool drops against my skin.
Rain had always been my refuge.
No one noticed tears when it rained.
I carried a basket of firewood toward the estate, my cloak already soaked through.
As I climbed the front steps, a voice called behind me.
“You’re going to catch a fever.”
I turned.
Kael stood beneath the stone archway.
Unl
