Kael instinctively steps in front of her, a protective gesture, almost too quick.
But Erynd doesn't move.
He stands there, motionless, draped in his cloak of shadows and feathers, as if the cold belonged to him.
His eyes, gray and deep, are fixed solely on Lunaya.
"I have found you."
His voice is low, soft, but it resonates like a confession.
Kael growls, softly but distinctly.
"She didn't call you."
Erynd tilts his head, his silver feathers quivering as if in an invisible wind.
"Not with words."
Lunaya feels her breath catch.
Erynd takes a step forward.
Just one.
But the whole world seems to tighten around him when he does.
"A few moments ago... something vibrated.
A thread.
A breath.
A heart seeking an answer."
His gaze slides to Kael and then immediately returns to her.
"And you triggered it."
Kael tenses further, almost ready to transform.
"The Resonance belongs only to us," he says curtly.
Erynd finally looks at him.
He doesn't back down.
He doesn't answer right away.
His eyes scrutinize Kael as if he could see beyond his skin, beyond his breath, to the truth buried beneath the man and the wolf.
Then he says calmly:
"You don't yet understand what you share with her."
Kael bares his teeth.
"And you think you understand?"
"No," replies Erynd.
"I hear her."
Lunaya shivers.
Erynd gently turns his attention away from Kael and back to her.
His features, strangely beautiful, almost supernatural, relax for a moment.
"Lunaya...
Do you know what you've just unleashed?"
She shakes her head, still shaken by the kiss, by Kael, by the trembling ground.
"I... no."
Erynd moves a little closer.
Kael immediately steps in front of her, but Erynd barely raises a hand, calming him without magic, without threat, just by his presence.
"I mean her no harm, Wolf."
"Then keep your distance."
"I'll stick to what she allows," Erynd says simply.
He stares at Lunaya.
"What you felt... it's not just the Resonance.
Not just Kael.
It's something inside you.
Something that has... awakened me."
He pauses.
And whispers:
"You called me like one calls a forgotten memory."
Lunaya feels the ground slip away beneath her.
Kael frowns, deeply troubled.
"What does that mean?"
Erynd closes his eyes for a second.
His feathers quiver, almost like a sigh.
"It means that... we have something to settle.
She and I."
He opens his eyes.
His gaze...
only on Lunaya.
As if she were the only light in this dark forest.
"If you'll let me."
Lunaya swallowed.
Kael gave her a desperately protective look, but he knew she had to answer.
She breathed.
Hesitated.
Then:
"...Speak."
Erynd bowed slightly, as if before a truth already known.
"Then listen to me, Lunaya.
Because what you have awakened...
began long before Kael."