KAEL'S POV
Not silence—never silence. The Watcher's voice thrummed in my skull, in my ribs, in every cursed inch of fire branded into me. Its call was chains, wrapping tighter and tighter, dragging me toward the abyss like I had been born for nothing else.
But Ayla's cry cut through it.
Somehow, even when swallowed by that endless dark, I could still find her. Her fire—fragile, flickering—clung to mine like a drowning soul clutching driftwood.
"Ayla!" I roared, fighting the pull, digging my heels into nothingness. There was no ground, no walls, only shadow that shifted under my weight like tar. Yet still I fought. My hand burned with flame as I forced it forward, searching for her.
The Watcher laughed. "You burn for nothing. She is already mine."
The shadows rippled, and I saw her—Ayla writhing in their grasp, her body outlined in abyss-fire. Her eyes glowed too bright, as if they no longer belonged to her.
No. Not again. Not like Cassia. Not like the others I couldn't save.
