~ELARA’S POV~
The forest had gone completely still. No birds, no rustling leaves, not even a breath of wind. It was like everything was holding its breath, waiting to see what would happen next.Kairos stood at the edge of the clearing, staring at me the way you look at something you’ve been hunting for too long—tired, angry, certain he’d finally caught up.
His eyes were hard, but there were shadows under them, like he hadn’t slept properly in days.
For one stupid second I just stood there, frozen.
I braced myself and waited for my knees to buckle, for that crushing Alpha Command to slam into me and force me face-down in the dirt like it always had before. But the shadows at my feet moved first. They rose up slow and smooth, curling around my ankles like cool hands, swallowing the gold
