The moment Kael accepted it, the connection did not surge or break the way he had expected. It settled into him instead, quiet and certain, as if it had simply found where it belonged, and that was what made it harder to resist. There was no force to push against, only something that fit too easily into place.
Ariana felt the change immediately, her hand tightening around his just enough for him to notice. When he looked at her, the calm she had been holding onto cracked, and something more real surfaced in its place, something that made his chest tighten without warning. She was not afraid of what stood in front of them, but she was afraid of what it was doing to him.
"Kael," she said, and this time his name did not sound like a warning. It sounded like she was trying to reach him before something else could.
