_Kaelen's POV_
I went to find Maelis that night.
I know how it sounds. I know what Celeste said and I know what the afternoon looked like from the outside. But there are things you carry that don't respond to external events the way they're supposed to. You can be told you're wrong. You can even know you're wrong in the part of your mind that processes information clearly. And something else in you can just keep going regardless.
Maelis was in her room with the light low and her legs raised on a cushion, which was how she managed the pain in the evenings. She looked at me when I came in with the expression she had worn my entire life, the one that meant she already knew what I was going to say and had not yet decided how to receive it.
I sat in the chair beside her bed.
"I
