The Academy felt different.
Iva walked through the familiar corridors, her footsteps echoing against the stone walls. Students milled around her, their voices a low hum of conversation and laughter. The same portraits hung on the walls. The same torches flickered in their sconces. The same scent of old books and polished wood filled the air.
And yet, everything had changed.
Lori was gone.
The thought settled in Iva's chest like a stone, heavy and cold. Her best friend—her anchor, her confidante, the one person who had been with her through every high and every low—was no longer here.
Iva had known it would be difficult. She had prepared herself for the emptiness, the absence, the strange silence where Lori's laughter used to echo.
But knowing and feeling were two very different thing
