Chapter 169

Kaelen

Fire doesn’t scream when it’s about to break containment.

It tightens.

That’s how I know something is wrong before the land reacts—before Maren stirs beside me, before the sky shifts, before the watchers move. The fire inside my chest coils inward instead of outward, compressing until it feels like a held breath that’s gone on too long.

My dragon wakes fully in the same instant I do.

This i