KAELEN:
As I returned, the castle walls echoed silently—each step taken down its cold stone corridors heavier than the last.
I was almost in a fog like my mind couldn't process the moment I hit my knees in the clearing until now.
The torches flickered in my wake, the flames bowing like sentient things, sensing the shift in my being or perhaps recoiling from the darkness that still clung to my skin.
I couldn’t feel my heartbeat. Only a low thrum in my chest, a slight ringing in my ears as if something inside me had been affected by Ariane and Varek’s presence.
Asher stood near the war table, maps unfurled and annotated in his neat hand. The second he saw me, the tension crackled between us like a blade drawn.
“I’ll be leaving within the hour,” I said. “Into Varek’s territory.”
He n
