Chapter 106. With, Not Under

Sound rushed at me: water boiling; boots on stone; someone sobbing; Syra barking orders like prayers. Smell followed: blood, ash, the sharp iron of new air after lightning.

Kael’s hand was the first thing I found. His skin was warm, but the warmth had a frayed edge, like a rope that had been pulled too hard for too long and was about to give.

“Hey,” I said, and my voice broke on the single syllable.

His eyes opened—the same gray as always, but without the storm. “Hey,” he echoed, and the bond did something I had never felt before: it settled. No pull. No tear. A weight distributed across two bodies until neither buckled.

“You’re different,” he said.

“So are you,” I said. “You’re still here.”

Mavienne wiped her sleeve across her mouth and, uncharacteristically, smiled. “He stopped fading the second the air shifted. I presume we have you to thank for the shift.”

“We have us to thank,” I said. “And her.”

The First Luna stood a few paces o