I feel it in Kael before I see it. His entire body goes still in a way that’s different from before. Stopped.
“No,” Kael says.
Sharp. Too fast. Too certain for something that isn’t true.
Drazan doesn’t react to the rejection.
“You were,” Drazan says, softly, flatly.
Kael’s grip tightens, fingers digging in like he needs something solid to hold onto while everything else shifts.
“That is not—” Kael starts, then stops.
The words break and don’t finish, but something in his expression changes.
His eyes flick over Drazan’s face—really look this time. Recognition. A flicker. A shape. Something that fits where it shouldn’t.
“You—” Kael’s words catch. His breath stutters. His shoulders jerk like something just hit him from the inside.
Drazan doesn’t move.
“I was at your side… the last stand,” Drazan says. “You wouldn’t fall back.”
His voice tightens.
“They kept coming.”
The slightest shake of his head.
“You told me to go.”
Kael frowns. A tremor runs through his body, muscles twitching. His tail swishes, throwing sand, but his eyes never leave Drazan.
“You told me to find her and run,” Drazan says, his voice dropping. “I did.”
A beat as his eyes dart to me, just for an instant, then back to Kael.
“And… I’m sorry… I lost her anyway.”
Her? Her who? What?
“Her…” Kael says, shaking his head.
My grip tightens on his arm involuntarily. A convulsion.
His gaze shifts to me. Not confused. Not searching. Locked.
“Mine,” he whispers.
The word hangs between us.
Mine.
Not soft. Not uncertain. A claim. A choice.
My breath catches, but I don’t pull away. I don’t break that look.
If I do, I think something fragile in him might slip back into the dark he just clawed his way out of.
