Selena.
I crouched by the fire, blowing gently into the fading embers, willing it to catch before they found something else to complain about.
The fire crackled softly in front of me, the only steady sound in the space, and I focused on it more than I needed to, watching the way the flames shifted and bent as though that alone could keep my thoughts from wandering too far.
Ronan and Edris had left earlier to hunt, their absence leaving behind something I could not quite name. It wasn't relief. It wasn't comfort.
It was simply… space. Space that felt unfamiliar, almost wrong, because it left only one presence behind.
Kael.
I could feel him without looking. I had learned to. Every shift in the air, every quiet movement behind me, every breath that did not belong to me settled into my awareness whether I wanted it to or not. He hadn't said a word since they left, and somehow that silence carried more weight than anything he could have said.
