A Light and Shadow's Kiss
Danger clung outside the sanctum. The campus of the Academy, so brimming with teenagers' energy and arrogant smugness on any given day, lay still, foreboding. Elira stood at the crystal-glass windows of the Eastern Watchtower, the harsh wind tearing through her wild hair. Her fingers continued to shake, not with cold—but with what she saw in Kael's memory.
What the Void found.
His suffering.
His sacrifice.
The brutal wails of a lost world wallowing in the darkness. The tiny, broken child clinging to nothing but hatred and the whispers of a name no one would ever speak.
She placed a hand on her heart. It ached—not of fear, but of something deeper. Of sadness and stubborn defenderness she hadn't even known she'd lived. No one had told her to be someone else's to bear their weight as well.
She knew now why Kael had constructed walls so high.
And why, despite those walls, her heart still ached for him.
