Chapter 105

Maren

The forest felt too still.

Not quiet — still. The kind of stillness that follows a held breath. Even the mist seemed to hesitate between the trees, unsure whether to rise or fall.

Kaelen still slept, one arm draped across his chest, his breathing deep and even. The faint blue veins under his skin glowed in time with the leyline beneath us. The world seemed to hum around him now, soft and low