Chapter 54. Burn the Poison, Keep the Bond

The Hall was still emptying from Mercy when Kael staggered.

Not the kind of stumble you see on a battlefield. The kind you see in kitchens, when a man’s been upright too long and forgot his body keeps a ledger.

Mavienne was at his side before the Conclave’s backs had fully turned. Her fingers pressed the linen over his hand; the fabric came away damp and faintly bitter. She sniffed once—priestess, apothecary, judge.

“He’s burning through it faster,” she said without looking up. “Too fast.”

“Faster is good,” I said.

“No,” she said, eyes cutting to me. “It’s dying angry.”

The bond shivered between us—not flare, not pain. Something older. A muscle flexing before it tears.

Orla’s voice came like a hammer laid gently on a nail. “We do it now. Or we let the poison decide how much of him it gets to keep.”

Syra didn’t wait for orders. She kicked a doorstop loose and let both oak slabs fall into place. The boom rolled through the rafters; even