Chapter 16: What Blood Awakens
I did not sleep after Kael left.
Whatever had weakened him last night still echoed faintly through the bond, like a bruise I could not see
The room still carried him.
His warning.
The way he had looked at me like I was something between a responsibility and a problem.
I was sitting by the window when the knock came.
Not the sharp knock of authority. Not a guard.
Two short taps.
"Elara," I said before she could announce herself.
She stepped in and shut the door quickly behind her. Her eyes were alert, not sleepy. She had been up too.
"There's someone at the outer gate," she said. "From Ebonvale."
For a moment, I forgot how to breathe. Ebonvale. My home. My family.
"They came that fast?" I asked, standing.
She hesitated. That was the first sign. "Yes."
Hope is a dangerous thing. It does not ask for permission before rising. It does not check logic before convincing you that maybe, just maybe, you were wrong.
