KAEL'S POV
The sound that came from the door wasn't wind.
It was breathing.
Slow, deliberate—something vast exhaling through cracks in stone. Every breath shook the floor beneath our boots. My instincts screamed to shift, to drag Ayla and run, but there was nowhere to go. The only way out was up, and the hole we'd fallen through was gone beneath the settling debris.
I kept my body between her and the door, blade raised, the silver edge catching her flickering light. "Don't move," I murmured.
She didn't argue, but I could feel the heat of her power thrumming behind me, restless as a heartbeat.
The split in the door widened with a grinding moan. Frost poured out in waves, crawling over the floor like living mist.
Ayla whispered, "It's reacting to me."
"Then stop reacting back," I hissed.
Her hand brushed my arm. Even that tiny contact sent a jolt of heat through my veins. "I'm not trying to. It knows me."
"Do you know how?"
She hesitated. "From before."
