LOGINThere will be a few more Adelaide chapters before we’ll dive back into the main story!
VioletKylan and I both watched Kaelis, waiting for her to speak. She just sat there with a soft smile, eyes far away, like her mind had drifted somewhere else. Nate lifted his knee and nudged her back to us.“Wake up.” Nate squeezed her waist. Her eyes went big as she jolted upright.“Oh! Yes. Right.” She blinked herself back into the room, sitting up straighter. Her eyes flicked to Kylan. “So. Da—”She stopped, shook her head, catching herself before the word could fully leave her mouth. I watched her swallow it back down, making sure she wouldn’t repeat the same mistake from earlier. “Elyx,” she corrected carefully, her finger in the air. “Elyx asked to speak with Mom. Right before they transferred him to Prison Island.”Kylan let out a weak grunt, as if that was supposed to make us believe he had stopped caring a long time ago. I knew better though. Without the mate bond or the Life Sense, I knew better because I knew him.“So.” Kylan let the word sit a moment. His voice had gone
VioletThe knocking didn’t stop. It was clear Kaelis had absolutely nowhere else to be and all the time in the world to prove it.I giggled into the pillow as Kylan pushed himself off me and forced himself to the door. He picked up his shirt along the way, muttering under his breath as he put it on. Then he swung the door open.“Evening, brother!” Kaelis stood in the doorway for about half a second before she went right past him, into the room. “That took you long enough.”Kylan hummed, sliding his hands into his pockets as Kaelis’s eyes scanned the room. When they landed on me, her whole face lit up. She waved her hand for a second. “Violet!”The smile on her face was so bright, I couldn’t even be mad at her for what she had just interrupted.I gave her a small wave in return. Nate came shuffling in behind her, an apologetic look on his face that was aimed at the both of us.“Were you in Nate’s room?” Kylan asked, his arms folding. His brows lifted as he waited for an answer.Kaelis
VioletMy mouth hadn’t had a single pause since we came back from Bloodstone Haven, and even now, sitting on Kylan’s bed, it was still going.I had told him about the Life Sense, about everything Aelius had taught me today, and he just listened. The whole way back, and now here too, without interrupting me even once.When I finally paused to take a breath after all those hours, I got the time to actually look at him. That’s when I noticed that I was the only one who had said anything. I had been curious about how everything went with Varius, but he had just let me do the talking until this point.Since there wasn’t much to say on his part, I just suspected that perhaps they had taken it easy today.“Are you okay?” I asked. A small smile curled his lips, though his jaw was tight.“Yes. Keep talking.”Only now could I see there was something heavy behind his eyes that hadn’t been there when we left this morning.When he didn’t respond, the smile slipped off my face. “Okay,” I said, my h
KylanThough I knew I probably shouldn’t, I was still stubborn enough to let my eyes travel further, deeper into the cave.It was nothing like the tunnels back at Bloodstone Haven. The cave walls were covered in dark red crystals. I could hear the faint crackle of a fire somewhere in the distance, and when I looked deeper into the cave, I saw a red light flickering.I wasn’t sure whether it was Baelor, but there was something or someone that didn’t want me to stop, so I didn’t.I kept going, but froze when I noticed the men lining the walls. I hadn’t expected anyone else to be there.They sat on the ground, weak and chained, their heads hanging low. When I spotted a few faintly visible crests, my stomach dropped. The Alpha Kingdom?Those were Eamon’s men…My eyes searched frantically, scanning one after another. If his men were here, then Eamon had to be here too, somewhere. ‘You won’t find him here,’ Baelor breathed. ‘Keep going.’There was something odd in his tone when he said it.
KylanThere was something wrong about sitting in a dark temple and being told to invite the thing that had nearly destroyed me to come closer. Yet that was exactly what Varius made me do.Shortly after Violet had left, he took a place across from me, folded both hands in his lap and gave me a simple instruction. Show me your eyes.That was it.There was no explanation or guidance, just a command.And I tried by shutting my eyes so hard they started aching. The only problem was that I felt more and more like a complete fool with each passing second because it wasn’t working.No matter how hard I tried, the red wouldn’t come out. It didn’t make any sense. Baelor wanted an apology, and we had given it to him, so why?When Varius let out a low hum, I cracked a single eye open and looked at him again. “What?” I growled.He gave me a shrug. “I was only wondering,” he said, “what it is you think you are doing?”I furrowed my brows, unsure of how to respond to that. What I did know was that I
Violet“Give me your hands again.”I followed Aelius’s instructions and slid my hands back into his. My back straightened as I pulled in a slow breath, feeling his fingers close around mine.How was any of this supposed to work?What was he expecting me to do? Just…feel?“From what I understand,” he said, watching me, “you believe your eyes answer to your emotions. Correct?”I gave a small nod. That was exactly what it felt like until he had just told me that it wasn’t. Grandpa Aelius tilted his head, studying me the way he always did.“Then tell me, child,” he said. “Have you never once felt something you could not explain? A sense of a thing before you had any reason to sense it?”I opened my mouth to say no, but it never came out. Because that wasn’t the truth. My mind went straight to Sonya. To that day in Lyperia when I had felt a second heartbeat, before anyone had told us we would get a younger sibling.But that wasn’t the only time…Though it wasn’t quite the same, there was a







