Chapter 38. Waiting for the Moon

The days passed in a hush, time moving like thick sap through a wounded tree. Kaelen hadn’t slept in what felt like weeks, his body burning with fatigue and his mind refusing to yield to rest. He stayed close—closer than anyone else—a shadow anchored by fierce necessity.

He maintained a silent, agonizing vigil over the silver wolf lying in the secluded den beneath the forest canopy. He fed her by hand when she wouldn’t eat, carried water in cupped palms when she refused to rise. When she growled, he didn’t flinch. When she snarled, he only sighed, murmuring Moonfire… like a spell meant to calm storms. But she never answered.

The bond that once burned between them now hummed faintly, like a wire under tension. Still there, but thinner. Too thin. He reached for her constantly, whispering: ‘Mira. Come back to me.’

Inside him, Sylas was equally strained, prowling the edges of Kaelen’s sanity, desperate to reclaim the lost half of their soul. Kaelen knew t