Rain slashes across my face as I crouch behind the temple’s prayer wall, heart hammering louder than thunder. There he is—twelve winters old, drenched in ceremonial black, standing before the High Seer like a lamb before wolves. My son. They’ve given him a new name, dressed him in their lies, but I’d know those star-split eyes anywhere.

He doesn’t flinch when the Seer presses a blade to his palm. Blood drips onto the oracle stone—and it cracks open with light. Not one mark. Two. Gasps ripple through the crowd. Forbidden. Unnatural. Mine.

A guard turns. I freeze. If they see me—if they know I watched all this time—they’ll kill us both. But then he stumbles, clutching his head like he hears something… someone. Our eyes meet. Just for a breath. And in that breath, I feel it—the pull of our bond, waking.

Now I have to choose: stay hidden and let them take him again, step forward and risk everything, or vanish into the storm and never look back.