Chapter 60

*Elora*

The moment the heavy doors of the Council chamber closed behind me, I felt like I could finally breathe again—but the air didn’t taste like relief. It was sharp. Bitter. Laced with the weight of things unspoken and a future rapidly unraveling beneath my feet.

We didn’t walk back to the infirmary. Not at first. Kael kept my hand in his as we descended the stone steps toward the Academy’s lo