Chapter 173

Kaelen

For three heartbeats, the world ends.

That’s what it feels like—fire screaming loose inside my chest, ripping against bone and breath as Maren disappears over the edge. There’s no sound in those heartbeats. No thought. Just the certainty that I am too late and that everything I didn’t say will stay unsaid forever.

My dragon roars.

Not outward—inward—a tearing, feral sound that rips through