Melody.
The dense trees of the forest creaked above us, their branches swaying in the cool wind, but I couldn't focus on the natural beauty. Not now. My mind was racing—thoughts of Kael's lifeless body, Julia's twisted victory, and the weight of the betrayal pressing down on me. Rowan kept walking ahead, his pace steady and unyielding, hypervigilant to any threats around us, as if the anger and the grief hadn't reached him the way it had me.
My body felt numb. The blood loss from the wound on my side made every step feel like I was trudging through thick mud. Every breath was shallow, like my lungs didn't quite know how to function. I wasn't sure how far we had walked or how long it had been since we fled the cave, but I couldn't shake the image of Kael's body, his face filled with so much hope and love for a woman who had turned her back on him.
