Sera's POV
I wasn't sure how long he had been gone. It felt like hours, but in the suffocating quiet of the room, time had lost all meaning. I couldn't stop pacing the stone floor, my bare feet silent as my anxiety dragged me back and forth across the rug.
Vera was back—not fully healed, but presence enough that her warm spirit hummed in the back of my mind, trying to soothe the knots in my stomach. He will be back, she reassured me gently.
"The wait is killing me," I whispered aloud into the empty room.
If I could, I would have pushed every last drop of my power through the bond to fuel his fight, but without him actively drawing on it, I was stuck waiting in the dark. He hadn't pulled from it either—or if he had, it was so miniscule I couldn't even feel the dip. He was shielding me,
