Chapter 68
The light did not fade slowly. One moment the space was steady, pale, and quiet, and the next it dimmed sharply, as if something had taken hold of it and drained its strength. The ground beneath Ariana's feet shifted, not breaking, but losing the certainty it had held before.
She felt it first. Her breath caught as the deeper current inside her tightened, not surging outward this time but pulling inward, bracing for something that had not yet arrived. Kael reacted at the same moment, his shoulders stiffening as the lightning along his arms drew closer to his skin, darker and more concentrated, no longer lashing outward but holding itself in check.
"That's not us," he said quietly.
Ariana nodded once. "I know."
