The newborn answered with a second breath, and Aira felt the whole house recoil.Kael went rigid before her eyes, one arm still locked around the baby, the other raised in front of Aira as if his body alone could stop the dark from touching them. The blackness at the edge of his eye surged hard, then thinned, then surged again, and Aira knew the root gate was trying to ride the shock straight into him. She did not let it. She slammed both hands over his chest and forced herself deeper into the bond with everything she had left, every memory of him, every fierce moment he had held her through terror, every promise he had made in blood and heat and desperate love. “Kael,” she whispered, trembling but fierce, “stay with me. You are here. You are with me. Do not look at the baby’s mouth. Look at me.” His breath came ragged and torn. The tiny hand in his palm twitched once, then stilled. The baby in his arms gave a small, strangled sound, not a cry, not yet, just the shock of life trying t
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