Grays POV

The portal swallowed Aurora in a blink. One heartbeat she was standing a few steps away, chin high, eyes steady through fear. The next heartbeat she was gone, the air she had warmed turning cool in front of me.

The bond snapped. It didn’t dim or thin. It broke clean, the way a cord cuts under a blade. The silence that followed felt wrong.

I reached for her presence out of habit and found nothing. No pulse at the edge of my thoughts. No soft tug in my chest. Only a hollow that made ...