CHAPTER 42WHERE IT BREAKS QUIETLYThe tension didn’t fade. It lingered. Thick enough that even the forest seemed to hold its breath around them. Voices had carried farther than they should have. Eyes followed. Other Faes, drawn by the shift in tone, the raised voices, the unfamiliar edge in what had once been quiet space. And at the center of it, him. What they saw was Rylan. What they didn’t know was that it wasn’t. Vaelis noticed. He always noticed. The attention. The discomfort. The way things were starting to tilt too far. And Mira was still standing there, rigid, her anger not fading, not settling into anything softer. So he moved. Without warning. He caught her wrist, not rough, but firm enough to stop her from pulling away immediately, and stepped back. “Come,” he said.She resisted. “Let go of me.” He didn’t. Not until he had already started moving. He pulled her away from the others, away from the eyes that didn’t understand, away from the space that had already broken.“Mi

CHAPTER 44QUESTIONS THAT STAYThe question didn’t pass through them lightly. It stayed. Hung in the space between them, quieter than anything that had come before it.Kael shifted his weight first, his usual ease slipping just slightly. “That’s… a different kind of question,” he said.Vaelis didn’t react. “You said to ask something I want to know.”“Yeah,” Eran muttered, scratching the back of his neck. “We just didn’t think you’d go straight for that.”Tarin exhaled slowly, his gaze dropping briefly before lifting again. “He liked simple things,” he said.Vaelis’ attention moved to him. “Like what?”Tarin shrugged faintly. “Food, for one. Not in a complicated way. Just… good food. He’d act like it didn’t matter, but you could always tell when it did.”Kael snorted. “That’s putting it lightly. He once argued for ten minutes over whether something was overcooked.”“That was a valid argument,” Tarin replied.“It was bread,” Kael shot back.“That doesn’t make it less important.”“He’s a

CHAPTER 46SMALL THINGS THAT STAY The silence didn’t end. It softened. That was the difference. No one rushed it this time. No one felt the need to fix it or fill it with noise just because it existed. It lingered between them in a way that didn’t feel broken. Vaelis noticed that too. But instead of analysing it, he stayed inside it. That was new.Kael stretched slightly, letting out a quiet breath. “You’re getting better at that.”“At what?” Vaelis asked.“Not ruining things,” Kael replied.“That is not a skill,” Vaelis said.“It is,” Eran cut in. “And you were very bad at it earlier.”Tarin snorted. “He still is.”Vaelis looked between them. “I have improved.”“Barely,” Kael said.“That is still improvement.”Eran grinned. “We’ll take it.”Vaelis didn’t argue that. He just stood there, quieter than before, but not distant. Not removed. Just… present. Lira had been watching the whole time. She shifted slightly now, stepping a little closer into the circle. “You’re not forcing it any

CHAPTER 48THE FIRST RETURNIt didn’t happen gradually. There was no slow shift, no careful transition like before. It broke through.Vaelis felt it first. Not as a voice. Not even as a presence. As resistance. Sharp. Sudden. His body stilled mid-step, the motion cutting off so abruptly it looked unnatural, like something had pulled a thread too tight and snapped it in place. Across the clearing, Kael noticed immediately. “Okay,” he muttered, pushing himself up. “That’s new.”Eran straightened slightly, his expression losing its usual ease. “What’s he doing?” Tarin didn’t answer. Because Vaelis wasn’t doing anything. He wasn’t moving. He wasn’t reacting. He just stood there, like something had locked him in place. Mira didn’t speak. But her attention snapped to him instantly. Something about this, was wrong. Not like before. Not controlled. Not measured. This was… unstable.“Vaelis?” Tarin called carefully. No response. Then, his hand twitched. Small. Almost unnoticeable. But it wasn’

CHAPTER 50HOLDING THE LINETime did not fix it. It didn’t smooth over what had happened. It didn’t erase the memory of that moment in the forest, the pressure, the presence, the way something unseen had reached too close and nearly taken everything with it. But it changed how they carried it. That was enough.They didn’t talk about it often anymore. Not in full. Not the way they had in the beginning, when every detail felt sharp and urgent and impossible to ignore. Now, it sat beneath everything they did, quieter but still present. A reminder. A boundary they all understood without needing to say it out loud. And Rylan…Rylan stayed. That was the difference. At first, it hadn’t lasted. Minutes, maybe. Moments where he surfaced, spoke, held himself together just long enough for them to believe he was back, only for something else to press through, for Vaelis to return, or worse, for that fractured stillness to settle over him again. But that didn’t last either. Not anymore. Now, Rylan