Elena POV

The corridors still thrummed with the echo of Kael’s boots. He’d stormed past so fast the torches along the wall rattled in their brackets, the guards shrinking against the stone as though afraid his fury might burn them alive.

I’d seen him like that before, a storm wearing the skin of a man. But this time? This time his eyes hadn’t been fixed ahead. They’d been searching Desperately Chasing Aria.

The little mouse had run from him again, and he had followed like she held the reins to a beast that no one else in this damned kingdom could tame.

I let out a sharp laugh into the...