The bond had never hurt before.
That was the first thing Ember noticed as she woke.
Not pain, exactly—nothing sharp or alarming enough to send her bolting upright—but a dull pressure low in her chest, like something resting where it shouldn’t. A weight that hadn’t been there when she fell asleep. She lay still beneath the blankets, breathing slowly, cataloging the sensation the way she’d been trained to do with injuries.
Inhale.
Exhale.
The feeling didn’t fade.
You feel it too, Vespera murmured from somewhere deep inside her.
Ember swallowed. Yeah.
The room was dim, pale moonlight filtering through the tall windows of her quarters. The pack was quiet at this hour, the forest outside holding its breath the way it always did after a full moon. Ember turned her head slightly, just eno
