Chapter 82 What Comes Next

• Kieran P.O.V.
• We don’t stop moving until the pull weakens enough for me to breathe without feeling it press against my chest. Even then, I don’t trust it, because it doesn’t actually disappear. It lingers in a thinner form, stretched rather than gone, like something that knows exactly how far away we are and doesn’t need to close the distance yet. That alone is enough to keep every instinct on edge as we move.
• Amelia walks beside me in silence, and it feels wrong in a way I can’t ignore. She isn’t shaken or questioning what just happened, and she isn’t trying to distance herself from it either. If anything, she seems more settled, as if something inside her has locked into place rather than breaking under the pressure. I’ve seen her uncertain before, but this isn’t uncertainty—it’s understanding, and that makes it worse.