We didn't speak right away after that.
Not because there was nothing left to say, but because everything that could have been said in that moment would have only added more weight to something that already felt dangerously close to breaking. The tension hadn't disappeared; it had simply changed shape, settling somewhere deeper, somewhere harder to ignore.
Rowan started walking first, his pace steady but not rushed, as though he expected me to follow without needing to ask. I did, though not out of trust alone. There was something else driving that decision, something quieter and far less comfortable, because staying behind—staying where Kael still stood—felt like stepping backward into something I had already chosen to leave.
Still, even as we moved away, I could feel it.
