(Isla)
We didn’t speak when we left the room. Caius didn’t ask if I was sure, and I didn’t need him to. The decision had already settled inside me, quiet and firm. I wanted to see them where they had been taken.
The corridor opened ahead of us, and the guards moved before we reached them. Their heads lowered faster than before, not only for Caius this time. I felt the difference in the way their bodies reacted, in the way their eyes dropped before they could fully meet mine. Something in me noticed without needing to question it.
Caius walked beside me, not in front of me. He didn’t guide me with his hand or pull me in any direction. He simply moved with me, and that made the path feel like mine too. I held my head up because lowering it no longer felt natural.
The inner wing changed a
