KAEL'S POV
The tremor stopped as suddenly as it began.
For a long moment, all I could hear was her breathing — fast, uneven — and my own pulse echoing like a drum behind my eyes. The forest had gone utterly still. Even the wind seemed to be waiting.
Ayla's hand was still on mine. Small, shaking, warm. That warmth used to steady me. Now it is burning.
Something was wrong with my blood.
It wasn't the first time I'd felt magic crawling beneath my skin. I'd survived poisons, runes, even moonfire. But this was different. It moved with my heartbeat — as if my veins had stopped belonging to me.
I drew in a breath, slow, deliberate. Her scent hit me — silver smoke and starlight — but under it was another. Faint. Wrong.
Ash and pine.
Rylan's scent.
My jaw clenched. I pulled my hand free before I could crush hers.
"Kael…" her voice was barely a whisper, the kind she used when she was afraid to say what she already knew.
I turned away, hiding my face in shadow. "He marked me."
"No—"
