Chapter 72
The space did not stay still. It adjusted, and Ariana felt it immediately in the way the air shifted around her, no longer tense or uncertain but settling into something far more deliberate. It was not reacting to her anymore, and that realization made her chest tighten before she fully understood why.
The pressure in the air deepened, not violent or unstable, but present in a way that could not be ignored. It felt like something had already made a decision, and everything around them was beginning to follow it.
Ariana's gaze locked onto Kael. He had not moved, but the stillness around him was different now, too controlled and too complete to feel natural. The lightning along his arm stayed close to his skin, darker than before, but no longer resisting him.
It moved with him, quiet and certain, like it already knew what he would do next. That was what unsettled her most, because it no longer felt like power he was holding.
"Kael," she said, sharper this time.
