Chapter 62

*Elora*

“Varis.”

His name barely left my lips, yet it cracked the silence like lightning across a still lake. He stood there, half-swallowed by the forest’s shadows, but there was no mistaking the shape of him—tall, broad, and heartbreakingly familiar.

The moonlight filtered through the canopy overhead, catching the edges of his dark clothes, his messy hair, the strained set of his jaw. He look