Chapter 64. We’re Not Built to Break

Selena’s POV

There’s something wrong with the air. It’s too still. Too alert. Like the mountain is holding its breath. I step out onto the balcony just before dawn, the wind cutting against my skin although the trees below don’t move, but the wards do. I can feel them, old magic woven into the rock and snow, bristling like fur along a spine.

He’s getting closer.

Julian.

I don’t know how I know. Only that I do. The pressure in the threads of my power tells me exactly where he is. A phantom ache blooming behind my ribs like something twisted and unfinished. He’s not just marching toward Winter Mountain, he’s calling to me. And something in me listens but not willingly. Not even curiously. Just instinctively.

As if there’s a rope tied between our spines, and he’s started to pull, but I won’t flinch. I’ve done that already. I’ve faced him, fought him and scared him.

Now I’m preparing to finish him.

But first, the matebond trails.