Chapter Twenty-One****The next morning, the academy felt quieter than it had been in years.But it wasn’t the kind of quiet I wanted—the soothing, gentle kind that lets you breathe. No. This was the kind that smothered. A heavy silence that pressed down on every corner of the halls, as though the stone walls themselves were holding their breath.And maybe they were. Because all of us—Kael, Jason, Raven, and me—we had stopped speaking. Stopped meeting each other’s eyes. Stopped being what we used to be.Now, when we crossed paths, it was like strangers brushing shoulders in the night. Quick, sharp glances, then silence.Distance.I avoided the dining hall after last night. I couldn’t bear sitting at the same table with all of them, pretending nothing had happened when everything had changed. Instead, I picked at bread in my room until it turned dry in my mouth.Kael hadn’t knocked on my door since. He had always been so certain, so unshakable, but now it felt like he was retreating i
Last Updated : 2025-08-23
LOGIN
