Elara POV
I feel Caelan before anyone says he’s close.
It isn’t a flare or a warning, more like the world quietly rearranging itself around a fixed point. The air doesn’t change, not really, but my body does. My shoulders settle as if a hand pressed them down. My spine lengthens as if it remembers what it was built for. Even my breathing shifts, deeper and slower, drawing in the night air and letting it out with control I don’t have to think about.
Velarys moves inside me, a restrained pressure that isn’t pushing to escape so much as standing at the edge of my skin like a blade held still.
He’s returning.
The courtyard is still holding the afterglow of a relaxed evening. Torches burn lower now, flames softened by a breeze that smells of smoke and pine and crushed herbs underfoot. Wolv
