Elena's POV
The moment I woke that morning, the air felt wrong.
Not dangerous… not exactly.
Just off, like someone had rearranged the furniture inside my chest while I slept.
Adrian is gone again. I'm not surprised. He is one of the most powerful people in Mondrovia. Wealthy and influential, he is often in different places, solving problems constantly.
Now that he went to Meneza yesterday, I can finally focus on the sense of wrongness that has lingered for days. Even though the absence of his presence pressed on me like a heavy palm on the back of my neck.
But beneath that quiet that heralded his absence is something worse:
A faint, trembling thread in the psychic space between us.
Something like interference. Or hesitation.
Or…
Doubt?
I rolled out of bed and immediately regretted the movement.
It hit me in a flash, not a vision, not a message, but more like an involuntary leak of emotion rushing through the bond we never acknowledged.
