Chapter 6. The Bond-Burned Path

The sky bled dusk as we returned to Veilgrove. The air was heavy with the scent of ash and pine, and I could still feel the memory of Ashfall Hollow clinging to my skin like soot. The whispersteel at my back was both comfort and threat, humming softly against my spine as if it, too, were waiting to see what I’d become.

Kael was waiting for me when we arrived. Not in the grand hall, not at the gates.

On the moonbridge.

I saw him through the mist, standing barefoot where the stone turned to silver threads above the river. His posture was tense, as if he’d been carved by storms instead of birth. When I stepped onto the bridge, the wind caught the hem of my cloak and twisted it around my legs like a shroud.

Without looking back, he shifted a half step aside to let me pass first—an apology made into posture. Old protocol said the Luna followed. He stopped himself, fingers whitening on the rail, torn between habit and respect.

“You disobeyed the Council’s loc