Chapter 63

*Elora*

The walk back to the academy was suffocating.

Not because Kael said anything—he didn’t. Not a single word. And not because the forest loomed around us like it might swallow us whole. It was because the silence between us wasn’t just silence.

It was grief.

It was rage, pulled tight like a bowstring and held there, trembling.

His hand stayed pressed against the small of my back as we made ou