Chapter 98
The first crack echoed through the chamber like a warning.
Mira released him at once and stepped back, her eyes fixed on the chains wrapped around his wrists as thin lines spread through the dark metal. The symbols carved across them flickered wildly, brightening and dimming as if they could no longer decide whether to hold or break.
"Kael," she said sharply. "Stop."
He barely seemed to hear her. His breathing had changed, deeper now, rougher with anger and something darker moving beneath it. Every part of him was focused on the pain coming through the thread between him and Ariana, and the more he felt it, the less control remained in the room.
"I said take me to her."
The words came low and steady, but the force behind them made the chamber walls tremble.
Mira moved closer again, slower this time, careful the way someone approached a wounded animal that could still kill. "If you break those chains now, you won't reach her as yourself."
