Three knots.
Three women—each powerful, each now emotionally and magically tied to him.
And now the Council had noticed.
Kael sat still as six of the highest-ranking Matriarchs stared down at him from curved obsidian thrones.
Reya stood at his side, arms crossed. Liora leaned against a pillar in her uniform. Mina fidgeted in the shadows, eyes wide and lips sealed.
"Men don't form Ether bonds," one of the elders said coldly. "Let alone three. This isn't mating. This is contagion."
"I didn't plan this," Kael said. "I didn't even ask for it."
"That's what makes it worse."
There was a long pause.
Then the head Matriarch smiled like a spider finding a fly.
"Keep him here. Let's see what happens next."