Leah
I woke to the smell of cold ash and pine.
The campfire had burned down to a ring of gray embers sometime before dawn. The blanket Kaelen had draped over me—his own coat, still carrying the faint trace of smoke and him—was warm against my skin, but the space beside me was empty.
I sat up slowly. My muscles ached from the climb, the dive, the fear. The falls still thundered in the distance, a steady roar that felt louder in the quiet morning. Kaelen was gone.
No note. No footprint. Just the imprint of his body in the grass and the lingering heat of his coat.
I exhaled through my nose. Not surprised. Not even disappointed, really. He was Kaelen—coming and going like smoke, like a storm that touched down just long enough to remind you it existed before vanishing again. I’d learned th
