The night stretched quietly across the mansion, but Elara did not return to her room immediately. The hallway lights cast soft shadows along the walls, long and steady, yet nothing about the space felt calm to her. The silence carried too much weight, too many unspoken things pressing in from every direction.
Her steps slowed near the window at the end of the corridor, and she stopped there, her hand resting lightly against the cool glass. Outside, the city moved without pause, distant lights flickering like nothing had changed. But inside her, everything had shifted.
Dante’s words echoed again, steady and precise.
You are starting to understand cost.
She exhaled slowly, her breath faint against the glass, her thoughts turning in a direction she had been avoiding. Cost did not begin to
