The video cut to black, but Kael’s voice stayed in the room.
Mama, don’t come alone.
For a moment, I could not move. I stood in front of the table with my eyes fixed on the dead screen, my mind replaying those four words until they stopped sounding like words and became something sharper. Kael had looked straight into the camera when he said it. His voice had shaken, but not broken. His chin had lifted at the end in that stubborn way that always made Petra say he was too much like me for anyone’s peace of mind.
He was afraid.
But he was thinking.
That was the part I forced myself to hold on to. Not the ropes around his wrists. Not Varak’s hand resting on his shoulder like he had any right to touch my child. Not the torchlight making Kael’s face look smaller and paler than it should ha
