Aveline turned her head and looked straight at the patch of shadow Kael was hiding in.
He remained perfectly still.
From where he stood, concealed beneath the dark fold of the trees, he knew she should not have been able to see him. No one ever did. That was the point of his stealth, of the way he bent shadow around himself until he seemed to vanish from the world entirely.
And yet…
Because it was her?
His eyes widened.
Then, slowly, the corners of his mouth lifted into a smirk of understanding.
Until now, she had never been able to make him out clearly when he used his stealth, even with his ability to manipulate shadows. But now she had sensed him. Somehow, impossibly, she had known exactly where he was.
How?
He did not want to know.
Not necessarily.
With a flick of his fingers, he formed a rune in the air. A heartbeat later, the concealment dropped away, and he emerged from the shadow as though the darkness itself had been a cloak folded around him and now let fall.
