Chapter Twenty six : What Was Buried
Kael POV
I woke because something was wrong.
Not danger.
Not an attack.
Absence.
My hand was stretched across the mattress where she should have been. Cold sheets. No warmth. No slow breathing beside me.
For a moment I just stared at the ceiling and told myself not to overreact. She wasn't a prisoner. If she wanted to walk the fortress at night, she could.
But the bond didn't agree with that logic.
It pulled.
Not sharp. Not painful. Just… insistent.
Like something tugging at my ribs from the inside.
I exhaled slowly and sat up. The room was quiet. Too quiet. I could hear the torches outside in the corridor crackling faintly.
She had been different these past days. Watching me when she thought I didn't notice. Measuring every word.
She was hiding something. And I had decided to let her.
Because pushing her only made her retreat deeper into herself.
But the bond tightened again.
Damn it.
