Evaline:
For a long while after Rowan's words, silence filled the room again... heavy, still, and suffocating.
I could hear the faint creak of wood beneath his boots as he shifted, the quiet rustle of the curtains swaying in the breeze. Outside, birds chirped faintly, the world cruelly normal while mine had stopped moving altogether.
When he finally spoke again, his voice was low, steady... the kind of calm that could cut through a storm.
"You know," he said, gaze resting on Draven's unmoving face, "I understand why you don't want to move. Why it hurts so much you can't even breathe without him. Because I have been where you are, Eva."
I turned toward him, but he didn't look at me yet. His jaw was tight, his eyes distant... like he was seeing a ghost only he could see.
