Aria
The silence after the separation is worse than the fear.
Fear is loud.
Fear gives you something to fight.
This this is emptiness.
The forest doesn’t look different. That’s the problem. The trees still stand tall around me. The ground is still damp beneath my boots.
The air still smells like rain and pine and earth.
But the bond—the bond is gone.
Not weakened.
Not distant.
Gone.
I stop breathing for a second. Just long enough for panic to try climbing into my throat.
No.
No.
That’s not possible.
The bond cannot disappear. Not after everything. Not after the dream. Not after whatever we became inside that cabin.
“Cassian?” I call softly.
Nothing.
“Lucien?”
Silence.
“Eryndor?”
Still nothing.
My pulse spikes harder.
“Kaelith.”
His name leaves me quieter than the o
