Kael
I hadn’t gone to the site since they laid her to rest.
Not because I didn’t want to.
Because I hadn’t trusted myself to stand there without breaking.
The celebration Nevara had insisted on calling it—laughter crashing against tears, stories filling the silences—had left me hollow. I hadn’t spoken.
Couldn’t. The words had lodged somewhere behind my ribs, too heavy to push out in front of everyone.
So I went now. Alone.
The grounds were quiet in the dying light, the last gold of sunset bleeding across the grass and softening edges that didn’t deserve softness. Her marker was simple, exactly as Michelle would have wanted. No fuss. No marble angels. Just her name, the dates, and the small strip of bright fabric someone had tied nearby, fluttering like a stubborn reminder that she’d
