Kael’s POV

She was gone, not in death but worse. Mira left without a trace, and the message she sent wasn’t a farewell; it was a fracture. "I didn’t leave to escape you. I left to remember myself again. You see me. But not fully. You chase who you want me to be. If I return, it’s for me."

It burned worse than any wound.

I stood at the war table. Maps forgotten. Orders untouched.

“She’s masking her energy,” Bastian said beside me. “Smart. Old magic.”

“She doesn’t want to be ...