The forest was too quiet.
Aria felt it the moment she stepped beyond the last ring of torches from camp. The night air pressed close, cool and heavy with the scent of damp earth and crushed leaves. Above, the moon hung swollen and pale, its light threading silver through the canopy. Every instinct told her she should return to the others.
But she knew why she had come.
She sensed him before she saw him.
Kaden stood near the clearing’s edge, his back to her, shoulders rigid beneath the dark fall of his cloak. Moonlight caught in his hair, turning the black strands almost blue. He didn’t turn immediately. He didn’t have to. The bond between them thrummed like a living thing, stretching and tightening the closer she came.
It had been volatile all day—unsteady, reactive, unpredictable. Da
