"Carol, are you okay?" Jace's voice pulled me back to reality. His hands were on my shoulders, his golden eyes scanning my face with concern.
"I—I'm fine," I stammered, still trying to process what had just happened. The fire I felt was intense but disappeared as quickly as it had come. It wasn’t the bond sparking—it was something else, something foreign but oddly familiar.
Estel stirred uneasily in my mind. "That was... strange. I've never felt anything like it before," she murmured.
Jace frowned, clearly unconvinced. "You looked like you were in pain for a moment. Are you sure?"
I nodded, not wanting to alarm him. "Yeah, just... a lot on my mind, I guess. Meeting your family, the kids, the pranks, all of it. Maybe I psyched myself out."
He studied me for a moment longer before pulli
