#Chapter 115: Ignition

Ember I can't sleep because the bond has stopped asking politely. Three days without the potion, and what began as a pull has become a command threaded through my blood: Kaine is awake, two floors above me, fighting the same restlessness and losing. "Go to him," Nara says. I check Clara first. She is safe, asleep, one hand tucked under her cheek. Then I step into the dark corridor and follow the pull before fear can dress itself up as logic. Kaine appears at the far end before I reach his door, still in his shirt sleeves, jaw tight, eyes already gold at the edges. "I was coming to find you." "I know." The answer leaves me before I think about it, because I do know; the bond is close enough to completion that his need presses against mine like heat through glass. He stops an arm's length away. "If this is too much, tell me." The mark on my shoulder burns through my shirt, bright enough to cast gold across his face. Rafe's voice crashes through the link for the first time,