Sapphire’s POV
Whoever designed the Dead Zone had gone overkill with it. The air didn’t just lack magic; it lacked life. Every breath I drew felt like swallowing dry wool, and the silence that hung in the air was so heavy it made my ears ache for the sound of any living thing.
The tension between Kael and I did not help matters. To my last words, he had no reply, and so for the past few minutes—or even hours, I really couldn’t tell anymore—we had sat in silence a good distance away from each other.
I wondered why he did not try to justify himself, but of course, perhaps what I said was true. The thought of it was too painful to keep in mind, so I tried to distract myself with the patterns on the bark of the tree I leaned against. The trunk felt more like bone than wood, but at least it
