Chapter 114

Mara’s POV

Ronan’s side of the wall was quiet before dawn. He hadn't slept there.

In the library, the papers had been stacked neatly. His favorite pen lay beside Arthur’s codex, and the coat I had brought him was gone. There was no farewell note. I found only the cup from last night, washed and left upside down to dry. Ronan usually left it where he had been working until I complained that the rim would mark the desk. He had cleared away the evidence of an evening he knew I would remember.

I put the cup upright. It was dry; he had left hours ago. The note about memory and the Bridge was no longer beneath the codex. His careful tidying gave me a sequence: he had made a decision after I went upstairs, gathered his papers, then left with time enough to wash a cup. This was no sudden patrol call.

For one foolish moment I thought he had