Chapter 79

Kaelen

The city was quieter at night. Not silent—never that—but quieter in a way that let me think.

I walked without direction, boots echoing against wet pavement, the sodium lights bleeding into streaks of orange on the puddles. It had rained earlier; the air still smelled of smoke and ozone, the kind that always lingered after a storm. My reflection stared up at me from the waterlogged street, f