Kael
By the time I cleared the courtyard, I already knew I wasn’t going back to my room.
The realization didn’t come as a decision so much as a refusal that had been sitting in my chest the moment I walked out of that office. I could still see it—the bed, the way the sheets had been twisted beneath us, the way he had looked at me like none of this was complicated, like choosing each other had been the easiest thing in the world. Walking back into that space would mean stepping directly into something that had barely even existed long enough to settle, and I didn’t have it in me to face that. Not yet. Maybe not ever.
So I kept moving.
The night air hit me as I crossed the open space beyond the doors, sharp enough to bite at my lungs, but it didn’t slow me down. If anything, it pushed me
