Zara’s POV
The healer’s ward was a quiet place at night—too quiet. The kind of silence that left room for thoughts to fester. And mine had been festering since the moment I stumbled back into this bed after seeing Talia and Atlas together in the shadows.
No matter how many times I turned over, how many times I closed my eyes and begged for sleep to drag me under, the scene replayed like an endless reel: Atlas leaning in close to her, his head bent low, their voices hushed, almost conspiratorial. Talia’s expression, though hard to see clearly, hadn’t looked distressed. She hadn’t been pushing him away.
They had looked like two people sharing secrets.
My chest tightened. The same question haunted me: Why were they together? Atlas was no friend of Talia’s—or at least, I thought he wasn’t.
