LENA
The days passed slowly.
The kind of slow that made you feel each hour stretching long and thin, like taffy pulled in too many directions. I spent my mornings training, my afternoons drifting between the schoolhouse and the main house, and my nights sleeping too lightly, the shadows in my room a little too full.
Dom was still gone. I hadn't heard anything—no messages, no updates—and no one dared mention his name in my presence. I appreciated the silence, even when it made the ache worse.
Surprisingly, it wasn't Sienna or Evan I spent the most time with. It was Cora.
She had a stillness about her, one that didn't ask anything of me. I didn't have to talk. I didn't have to smile. I could just be, and she never tried to fix it.
