Atlas’s POV
I’d combed nearly every corner of this cursed academy and still found nothing.
The library. The training grounds. The courtyard where she usually lingered when she wanted space. Even the dorm hall where her room sat locked away under the school’s orders. Empty.
Zara had vanished.
By the time I circled back toward my dorm, a gnawing irritation chewed at me from the inside out. My patience was wearing thin, each second feeding the ache in my chest and the anger in my gut.
I could have asked. Zarek. Jace. Maybe even Liam. But that would mean lowering myself to the last thing I wanted: admitting they knew something I didn’t. That they had access to her I was denied.
No.
I clenched my fists in my pockets, jaw tight. She should have come to me. She should have trusted me.
I c
