Kael could still feel her.
That was the first thing he noticed.
Not the silence pressing down on them like a physical weight.
Not the wrongness saturating the air, making it taste of copper and ozone.
Her.
Faint. Distant. Distorted like a radio signal through static.
But alive.
He pressed his palm against the dark mark now pulsing over his heart, feeling it throb beneath his skin. It burned, not like fire, not like pain.
Like something breathing.
Like something alive that had burrowed into him and made a home.
Adrian stepped closer, crimson eyes narrowed with concern centuries old.
"It tethered something to you," he said quietly, voice tight. "Marked you as its own."
Kael's jaw tightened, hand still pressed to his chest. "Or she did."
"What?"
"This doesn't feel like the presence," Kael said, closing his eyes, focusing on the sensation. "It feels like... her. Like she left me a way to find her."
