Lyra POV

“You’re asking me to bind my soul to yours,” Kael said quietly. “Not as mates, not as King and Keeper but as one path.”

I held his gaze and nodded.

The garden around us was still smoking. Ash clung to the broken hedges and cracked stone like a second skin, and the night air tasted wrong; burnt magic, blood, and something older that hadn’t fully retreated.

The battle was over, but the land hadn’t settled yet; It felt like the ground was holding its breath.

Kael exhaled ...