Chapter 87: Aftermath and Awakening
The silence that settled over the glacier was not peaceful. It was the dense, ringing quiet after a thunderclap, ears straining for the next sound. The metallic tang of blood and the ozone scent of discharged energy hung in the sharp morning air. The sun, now fully clear of the horizon, cast long, stark shadows from the dais and the bodies scattered around it, painting the ice in shades of gold and crimson.
Kael held Lyra, his face buried in her hair, breathing in the scent of her—clean Vault air, ozone, and beneath it, the essential, grounding fragrance that was simply her. The bond between them was no longer a strategic channel or a raw, open wound. It was a floodplain after the storm, vast, settled, every contour of their shared exhaustion and relief laid bare. He could feel the tremors running through her, the psychic and physical drain of what she had done.
