I walked back to the dorm alone.
Kieran had vanished after we stepped out of the administrative building and he dropped the fact that Avelar was the first lycan king
I stood alone in the cold with only the weight of what we'd seen, and done, pressing down on my shoulders. It was strange. When I'd been with him, it was like he'd blocked the worst of it out. I hadn't realized until now that even his presence could feel like a shield, whether he meant it to or not. But now that he was gone, everything came flooding back in brutal waves.
The moment I stepped into the feral dormitory, it hit me.
Grief. Guilt. The suffocating silence of absence. It clung to the walls, soaked into the air like blood that refused to wash off.
