Nyra lost her breath the second Kael yanked her forward.
There was nothing gentle about it.
But it wasn’t violence, either—not the kind that shouts its presence.
It was just absolute.
One movement that wiped out space and reason and thought, ripping her away from the thin boundary she’d been clinging to and throwing her somewhere far more dangerous than the gate she’d wanted so badly to reach.
She crashed into him—solid, hard, impossible to move. His body felt like stone, but not cold or dead. Alive. Warm.
For a heartbeat, reality stalled out. Her pulse tripped over itself. Her brain refused to catch up.
All her instincts kicked in. She pushed at his chest, desperate to put space between them, to claw back a slice of control—anything, really.
“Let go of me,” she gasped, her voice s
