Ash's POV
Somehow we had ended up in the room.
I didn't fully remember the in between parts, the corridor, the walk, the moment Rowan had taken me from Dale, it had all happened in that blurry way things happened when your mind was somewhere else entirely and your body just followed whoever was moving with the most certainty.
Rowan was sitting on the edge of the bed with his elbows on his knees, one hand pushed into his hair, and I stood near the door and looked at him and swallowed.
The room was quiet.
Outside in the corridors there were still voices, movement, the school processing what had been found in the library, but in here it was just us and the quiet and the thing I needed to ask him.
I swallowed again.
"Were you in the library today?"
My voice came out shakier than I int
