Kaelen's POV
Before I could withdraw my hand or second-guess what I'd demanded from her, she captured it between both of hers. Her touch was confident as she turned my palm upward, as if this were something she'd done countless times before. I watched her eyelids flutter shut, not from reluctance but from concentration, like she was aligning some internal compass before unleashing what lay dormant within her.
When her eyes reopened, a delicate strand of luminescence threaded between her fingertips. Willow-white and gossamer-thin. The precise type of magic she wielded when exercising restraint.
The light carved across my palm in a single, decisive stroke.
I didn't recoil. The bite was acute but fleeting, an honest wound without theatrics. I'd braced for something far worse. Blood immediately beaded along the thin crimson seam as she steadied my hand, her hold both unyielding and tender, as though she couldn't afford to squander what she'd just coaxed from my flesh.
