Kael did not sleep.
Not that night.
Not the next.
The divine light had burned something deeper than flesh, and no healer’s magic could quite touch it. They could close the skin. Set the bone. Ease the shock.
But the wound Heaven left behind was not entirely physical.
It lived in the way his heartbeat faltered sometimes—quickening without warning, stuttering like it was remembering the moment it nearly stopped. It lived in the way his wolf paced endlessly beneath his skin, restless and sharp with unfinished violence.
And it lived in the way he would not let me out of his sight.
Even when exhaustion finally dragged him into unconsciousness, his hand stayed locked around my wrist, fingers tightening reflexively every time his breathing shifted.
As if Heaven might reach through the dar
