Kora’s POV
The next few days passed in uneasy silence. Edward did his best to pretend things were normal — training sessions with the warriors, council updates, even dinners filled with meaningless small talk — but I could feel the weight pressing between us. The kind that didn’t need words to be felt.
He hadn’t mentioned my late-night walk again, but I knew it lingered on his mind. His touches were softer, hesitant, like he was scared that one wrong move would make me shatter or slip further away. I didn’t know which one scared him more.
And me? I was scared of both.
The forest still called to me. Every night, I’d hear it whisper beneath the surface of my dreams — a low hum, a pulse that felt eerily like a heartbeat. Mine, but not mine.
On the fourth morning, I woke up before dawn an
