Evaline:
The world outside the car blurred past me - green, grey, then gold - but I barely saw any of it. My eyes were open, yet my mind was a million miles away, trapped between guilt and exhaustion.
Rowan drove quietly beside me, his gaze focused on the winding road that led down from the mountains. The steady hum of the engine and the faint thrum of tires on gravel were the only sounds between us.
Draven's face lingered in my thoughts, pale and peaceful, his chest rising in slow, mechanical rhythm. The image had burned itself into the back of my eyes... even when I blinked, I could see him lying there, surrounded by herbs, machines, and silence.
I pressed my hand over my heart, fingers trembling slightly. The ache was still there - sharp, cold, unrelenting - but now there was something else underneath. Something Rowan had left me with. Purpose.
I had promised myself I wouldn't fall apart again. I couldn't afford to.
