The days after that passed in a flash.
Atrinae emptied the guest shelves until the steward stopped restocking them without asking the princess first.
Gray trained in the black-crystal room until his ribs stopped reminding him of Vhar'Zul.
And just like the princess warned him, Gray didn't touch any other doors.
He ate when food was left outside his room and spoke when the princess passed him in a hallway, which was rare and never for long.
She looked at him like a problem she had invited in and could not put back out.
And soon...
The morning finally came.
The academy bells started before the sky had finished turning.
Ring....
A low, layered sound that rolled off the dark towers and into the mansion as if the building next door had decided the whole street now belonged to it.
Gray was already dressed.
Atrinae flicked her tongue once against his wrist and vanished back into the bonded space.
[It's today...]
'Today.'
