Kael’s POV
The moment I stepped out of the lower chamber corridor, I knew they had met without me.
It was in the silence first. Not ordinary silence, but the kind that follows a decision already made. The guards stationed near the elder wing would not meet my eyes, and that alone was enough to tighten something dark in my chest.
They were hiding something.
Again.
I moved through the stone hall with measured steps, forcing calm into every breath even as the bond pulsed faintly at the edge of my awareness. Elara’s presence remained somewhere above in the main keep, steady but restless, like her mind had not stopped turning since the clearing.
Neither had mine.
The doors to the council chamber were still warm from recent use when I pushed them open.
The room was empty.
No elders.
No
