>>Ariston
The silence that followed my cry was worse than any wound Rael had given me.
He just stood there—for one fleeting, torturous second—watching me. His face unreadable beneath the veil of falling rain. Water dripped from his hair, from Aelin's motionless form on his shoulder, from the jagged edges of the ruined temple around us.
Then…
He let out a long, quiet sigh. A tired, broken sound. The kind of sigh you give when you've already made a choice you know will hurt someone—and you're doing it anyway.
And then he turned away.
!!!
His action shattering me.
The sound of his footsteps vanished with the rain. One, two, three soft splashes—and then silence.
Rael didn't turn back.
Didn't offer a word.
Not even a glance.
Just a tired, quiet sigh.
Then he bent his knees—
—and leapt.
In a blur of motion, he cleared the crumbled wall of the half-built temple, Aelin limp over his shoulder, his coat flaring like wings behind him.
Then he was gone.
And I was alone.
