KAEL'S POV
The earth hadn't just split — it had breathed.
When Ayla vanished into the light, the mountain exhaled, and every wolf around me staggered as if the air itself had been knocked from their lungs. My wolf howled, a sound that wasn't meant for this world. It was a cry from the bond, from the marrow of me, from everything that had ever reached for her.
I forced my body upright, though every instinct screamed to follow her. Snow seethed under my boots. The circle of power she'd broken pulsed like a heartbeat—hers, ours.
"Don't," Thorne's voice rasped behind me. "The Hollow eats what enters."
I turned, glare sharp enough to cut him. "Then it can choke on me."
He flinched. "Kael—"
But I was already moving. The bond thrummed beneath my skin, erratic, desperate. She wasn't gone. Not yet. I could feel her fear. I could taste the edge of her heartbeat.
There was no ground, no sky, just falling — not down, but through. Through her memories. Through mine.
