AYLA'S POV
The light collapsed inward like a dying star. Then there was nothing.
No sound. No snow. No Kael.
Only a ring of scorched earth where he had stood. The violet flame guttered and went out, leaving the forest drowned in a black stillness so complete it felt like the world had forgotten how to breathe.
I didn't move. Couldn't. My pulse was still echoing in my ears, searching for his heartbeat to answer it. It didn't.
"Kael," I whispered.
His name vanished into the dark like a stone sinking through water.
Rylan was still there, standing at the edge of the crater, eyes hollow. He looked older suddenly — not in years, but in weight. The same silence that held me seemed to have wrapped around him too.
"What did you do?" My voice cracked on the last word.
He didn't answer at first. Just stared into the pit where Kael had disappeared, as though expecting him to claw his way back up through the ash.
Finally, he said, "The bond took him."
