Chapter 41. The Quiet Between Us

The next day unraveled with aching slowness.

Morning light filtered through the silk-draped windows in delicate shafts, gilding the cold stone of the stronghold in a warmth it didn’t truly possess. But Mira could find no comfort in it. The bed beside her was already empty when she stirred—the space where Kaelen had lain now cold, the imprint of his body smoothed away. The warmth of their midnight escape, their shared breath beneath moonlight, already felt like a distant dream.

Kaelen was gone—swallowed whole by the machine of power. The council had claimed him the moment he stirred, dragging him into a labyrinth of duties Mira could only imagine: elders squawking like crows, ancient wolves trading opinions like currency, decisions weighed with centuries of inertia.

She saw him only in fragments now. A fleeting glance across a corridor. The brief press of his fingers against hers as they passed one another like ghosts in a house neither of them controlled. Sometimes