The festival had begun thinning by the time Kael walked her home. Lanterns still glowed warmly above the streets, swaying gently in the night breeze while distant music echoed faintly through the capital behind them, softer now than before. Most people had already begun returning home, leaving the roads quieter than they had been earlier. Kaelira walked beside him in comfortable silence, though the tension between them felt anything but calm. Ever since he fastened the bracelet around her wrist, something had changed…something heavier and both of them felt it.
“You’ve been quiet,” Kael observed after a while.
Kaelira glanced toward him briefly. “I’m thinking.”
“That usually worries me.” A soft laugh escaped her before she could stop it, and Kael immediately looked at her again like hear
