Elara felt him before she saw him.
The forest shifted in a way that had nothing to do with wind or movement. It was deeper than that, something instinctive, something that tightened along the edges of her awareness like a warning that had arrived too late to be useful.
Kael.. This time, he was close.
Elara didn't move. She didn't step back, didn't reach for escape, didn't let the old reflex take control of her body. Her pulse quickened, but it no longer carried the same frantic edge it once had. It settled into something sharper, something alert, something ready.
The leaves behind her shifted.
Then— He stepped into view. Kael looked exactly the same. And yet completely different.
There was no hesitation in his posture, no trace of the internal conflict she had once thought she had seen in him. Whatever doubt had existed before had burned away, leaving behind something far more dangerous.
