Cassian was quiet. Too quiet.
I could feel it in the air, in the way the space between us had thickened, like a wall that neither of us wanted to acknowledge. His strength was coming back—slowly, inch by inch, like he was rebuilding himself from the inside out. But there was something else. Something darker. I could see it in his eyes, in the way he clenched his jaw every time I tried to catch his gaze. It was the silence that bothered me the most, the way he was retreating into himself, as if he wasn’t here with me anymore.
We were sitting by the small fire we’d managed to start, the flame flickering weakly in the cold morning air. The ravine was still, the world outside quiet—too quiet. The only sound was the crackle of the fire and the occasional rustle of leaves, but it wasn’t peacef
