Kael’s POV
The moment the containment circle collapsed, the keep changed again.
Not gradually.
Not subtly.
Instantly.
The corridor didn’t just feel unstable anymore—it felt rewritten. Like something inside it had stopped pretending to be stone and started behaving like a living threshold.
The shadow behind us stopped shifting.
That was the first warning.
Not because it disappeared.
Because it became still enough to decide.
Elara staggered slightly against me, her breath uneven, her body caught in the aftermath of the broken binding. I tightened my hold immediately, keeping her upright before she could drift back toward it.
“No,” I said quietly.
Not to her.
To it.
The bond between us was no longer steady. It pulsed in uneven waves, like something was pressing on it from both s
