They walked for two days before Row finally spoke about anything beyond directions.
The badlands stretched wide and merciless around them, cracked earth radiating heat even after sundown, and Kaelen had spent most of those two days locked so deep inside her own head that she barely registered the blisters forming inside her boots or the way her shoulders had started to ache from carrying nothing but her own exhaustion.
"You're doing that thing again," Row said, glancing sideways at her, studying her the way she studied everything, quick and assessing, never quite letting her guard down fully even in casual conversation. "Going quiet inside your own head like there's a war happening in there nobody else is invited to."
"There is one." Kaelen's voice came out flatter than she meant it to,
