PENNY POV
My aunt’s words echoed in my mind way longer than they should have.
I did not notice Liam taking my hand.
Did not notice him leading me outside into the cold Canadian air.
Did not even realize we had walked the path to Great Bear Lake until rocks shifted under my boots and the smell of water filled my nostrils.
It was quiet here.
Too quiet.
Just distant howls somewhere beyond the trees and the soft, restless drag of water against the shore. There was no moon. No stars. Only thick clouds swallowing the sky, heavy and dark and swollen with a rainstorm they had not decided to release yet.
Thunder rolled far away.
The sound trembled through the air and called my mind back where it should always have been.
In my body.
Itaca had gone silent long ago.
Not absent. Never absen
