The bond was breaking.
Maelis felt it the moment she woke, the enchantment fluttering like a torn thread in her chest instead of lying smooth and obedient where it was supposed to. For a terrifying heartbeat, she thought it was gone entirely—that she had failed so completely even the magic had abandoned her.
Then it snapped tight again.
Too tight.
She gasped, fingers clawing into the blankets as pain lanced through her sternum. Not the warm ache of a true bond settling. Not the slow burn she had been warned to expect.
This was sharp. Erratic.
Unstable.
No, she thought desperately. Not yet.
Beside her, Ember slept on, her breathing steady, her expression soft in a way that made Maelis’s chest ache for an entirely different reason. Moonlight traced the curve of Ember’s cheek, the fai
