Kael's POV
She walked out without looking back.
The sound of the door clicking shut behind her was louder than it had any right to be. I stayed still, jaw tight, hands in my pockets—trying to ignore the familiar ache that started building in my chest. That kind of ache didn't belong here. Not in this office. Not in my body.
I hated it.
The discussion we just had lingered like smoke in the air, thick and suffocating. Her words… they shouldn't have meant anything. But they did. They meant too fucking much.
That look she gave me before she left—it wasn't fire. It wasn't that sharp, explosive defiance I'd grown used to. It was empty. And for some reason, that hollowness unsettled me more than her hatred or anger ever could.
It felt like she'd already left me in every way that mattered.
And I hated that it bothered me.
She was close. Still within reach. But it felt like she was slipping further and further away from me, and for the first time, I didn't know how to pull her back.
