Mira’s POV.

Kael’s words stayed between us. The air thickened. Neither of us moved. The silence spoke first. It said everything we had refused to say for years. He didn’t look away. I didn’t breathe. The bond stirred, slow, deliberate, alive. It pulled once, sharp enough to make my chest tighten. I knew that pull. I had lived with it, buried it, feared it.

He took a step closer. I stayed where I was. He stopped, waiting. The space between us thinned. My name left his mouth, quiet, ...