Elara's POV
I stood in the dark with my hand on my stomach and the Voice's words still turning in my mind.
Find out who he is.
I pressed my hand harder against my stomach. The child. I had almost forgotten, in the noise of the day, the weight of the work, the shock of the meeting. But it was still there. Growing. Changing me. Making me someone I did not recognize.
I thought about Kaelen. About the way he had looked at me the last time I saw him. The anger. The hurt. The something else underneath that I had not wanted to name. I had dismissed him. I had told him to stay away. I had ordered him not to come back.
He had walked away. And I had not called him back.
I did not sleep that night. I sat at my desk as the hours passed, the candle burning low, the shadows pressing close. I wrote nothing. I read nothing. I just sat there, waiting for morning, waiting for whatever came next.
