The room feels smaller the longer we stand in it.
Their voices stay calm, controlled, logical — but my thoughts keep pulling back to the clearing. To the way the air felt around him. To the way my power simply… stopped.
To the way he looked at me.
Not like prey.
Not like threat.
Like recognition.
“I need air,” I say quietly.
Ace’s eyes move to me immediately. He studies my face for a second, searching for injury, instability — something to fix. There’s nothing he can fix.
I’m not hurt.
I’m unsettled.
He nods once. “Stay within the grounds.”
“I will.”
His hand brushes my wrist as I pass him, brief but grounding before he lets me go.
The corridor feels longer on the way out. The castle is alive with quiet movement, but it all feels distant. Muted. My mind keeps replaying the mom
