Chapter 70
Ariana didn't move. Kael stood only a few steps away, but the distance between them felt wider than anything she had ever known. His hand was still raised, and the lightning around it had thickened into something darker and slower, pulsing in uneven waves that no longer followed any pattern she recognized.
It didn't look wild. It looked unstable in a way that felt deliberate, like it was changing into something else while still wrapped around him. The air between them felt tight, stretched thin, as if one wrong movement would tear everything apart.
She could feel it in her chest, in the way her breathing refused to settle, in the pull that kept dragging her toward him even when every instinct told her to stay back. The space itself seemed to hold its breath with her, waiting for one of them to break first.
