Chapter 196

* Elora*

The shadows in the lower hall had grown longer since I last passed through, curling at the edges like ink dropped in water. The old storage wing beneath the observatory was mostly forgotten now, its wards cracked and faded, dust clinging to the vault doors like it was part of their design. But that night, they weren’t what drew me in.

It was him.

Kaelen was already there.

He didn’t hear m