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? Pick up Beloved and step into the Forge.