The sun had barely risen over the horizon, its light spilling over the palace grounds as Kael paced back and forth in his private sky garden. The bond between him and Selene pulsed at the edges of his consciousness, growing stronger with each passing moment. Every step he took, he could feel the echo of her presence, the steady rhythm of her heartbeat matching his own.
He hated it. The bond was supposed to be a tool for peace, something to end the war, but it was slowly unraveling him. He could no longer separate her emotions from his. When she felt fear, he felt it. When she suffered, he bled. And when she experienced grief, it was as if a part of him died with her.
His mind couldn't stop racing, not after what he had learned in the archives the day before. The truth was so close now, t
