Gavric took the infant like he'd just been handed the core of the world. He stepped to the center of the chamber, beneath the moons' twin glow now pouring in through the tall slitted windows, and raised the boy high.
"Welcome—" he shouted, loud enough for the stone walls to remember it.
"Welcome to House Kaelithar!"
The child's lungs fought back immediately. Another shrill cry filled the chamber, piercing and defiant.
And somewhere, buried under that voice—under the soft, pale skin and tiny, clenched hands—Elias's soul cracked open.
He didn't see the moons.
He didn't see Gavric or Seraphine.
What he felt was the cold.
What he heard was his own heartbeat in someone else's body, thudding out of rhythm.
Something scratched at his ribs. Something foreign, humming gently in the dark.
And then he heard it—
Veyren.
They called him Veyren Kaelithar.
He didn't know that name. Didn't want it.
What the actual fuck is going on?
