Kael’s POV

The night carried a silence that felt unnatural. Not the kind of silence that came with peace, but the heavy, suffocating kind that pressed down on my chest and made the walls of the packhouse feel closer than they were. I should’ve been reading the reports Daniel had left on my desk,rogue sightings, supply inventories, border issues,but none of it mattered. Not when all I could think about was Aria.

The way she had laughed earlier, so unexpectedly, had burned itself into my mind. She’d tried to hide it, covering her mouth as if it were something shameful. As if she didn’t know that her laughter was the...