Beloved

Smoke one hour, flesh the next-and something patient is calling him home.

She got Kaelen back. Mostly. He returned from a year inside the wound between worlds translucent at the edges, his hands passing through hers on his worst mornings, the between-space still whispering his name like an old friend.

Now the road south fills with people who were never meant to walk it together-hundreds of bonded pairs, baby dragons on their shoulders, pulled toward the Forge by a signal that feels like a hand opening in the dark. Serenya watches them come, her husband beside her, the morning light passing straight through his shoulder.

They have come to the one place the between-space is strongest. The one place it can finish what it started.

The waking eggs hold a secret older than the Pact: a covenant that could heal the wound forever and anchor Kaelen to the living world at last. The cost is one hundred and fifty-three bonded pairs, one attempt, no second try.

Will their love be enough to forge a new world-or will the space between worlds finally claim the man Serenya already fought a year to keep?