The moment I realized they were not hunting me, but answering me, the world corrected that belief with ruthless precision.
The shift did not arrive gradually, and it did not offer warning, because the instant that understanding settled, something sharper collided with it, something immediate and undeniable that stripped away any illusion of control. The air around us tightened again, but this time it was not resisting me. It was tracking me.
Kael reacted before the full weight of it settled into me, and the shift in him was immediate and unmistakable. His posture hardened, his focus sharpening outward, his presence no longer recalibrating around me, but preparing for something external that he already understood.
“They found you,” he said, I did not move, because the truth had already s
