Aurora's POV
They carry me back to my own room. I don't remember the walk, only that Noah is already asleep by the time I'm set down, his face still blotched pink from crying, one arm flung above his head like the day has finally let go of him even if it hasn't let go of me.
I sit on the edge of his bed and don't move.
The lamp is off. I don't turn it on. I sit in the dark with my hands folded in my lap and stare at the wall across from me, at nothing, at a spot where the paint catches the hall light bleeding under the door, and I don't think. I try not to think. It doesn't work.
Voices reach me from the corridor.
Nova's, low, and Kalen's under it, quieter still, the kind of quiet meant for a mind link and not for speaking aloud at all — except some of it must be leaking past whatever
