The moment the bond stopped waiting, I felt the judgment descend with a certainty that could not be escaped.
It did not strike with violence or announce itself with force, but it settled around us with a quiet, suffocating authority that made resistance feel irrelevant. The presence within the bond had shifted beyond observation and beyond testing, and what replaced it carried the unmistakable weight of something that had already decided the rules we were now bound to face.
Kael did not move away, but I felt the change in him, the tightening of his control not outwardly in dominance, but inwardly in preparation, as if he understood that whatever came next was not something he could overpower.
The bond surged again, and this time it did not hover between us or press against us. It moved
