The weight of the day pressed down on Rhea like a second skin. Her limbs ached, her ribs throbbed, and her head pounded with the low, persistent beat of exhaustion. After Kael had catalogued her injuries—quietly, clinically, without prying—he hadn’t said much. Just handed her a water bottle and turned away, giving her the space she hadn’t realized she’d needed.
Now, curled up on the stiff mattress of her dorm bed, she stared at the ceiling through the shadows that stretched across the room. The dim light from Kael’s desk lamp glowed from the other side of the dorm, muted and warm compared to the chill settling over her. He hadn’t spoken to her since, only the scratch of his pen and the occasional turn of a textbook page breaking the silence between them.
Sleep dragged at her eyes, her bo
