The moment I pushed back, the bond reacted as if something sacred had just been defied.
The resistance did not explode outward or shatter what stood between us, but it traveled through the connection with a sharp precision that made it clear something fundamental had shifted.
My wrist remained in Kael’s grip, firm and unyielding, yet my presence did not bend beneath his. Instead, it rose to meet him, steady and deliberate, not driven by instinct or reaction, but by a choice that belonged entirely to me.
The system pulsed violently around us, its structure tightening and recalibrating as if it were trying to correct an imbalance it could not fully contain.
Kael did not release me. However, I felt the exact moment he understood that this was no longer a resistance he could dismiss or ove
