Dawn didn't come gently.
It crawled through the trees in muted streaks of gray, painting the forest floor in ghostlight. The air was damp and cold, thick with the smell of smoke that had drifted from the ruins.
Ray stirred first. He hadn't slept — not really. His back rested against a fallen log, his sword across his knees, his eyes half-closed but alert.
Zelene hadn't moved much since the night before. She sat where she had fallen, wrapped in his cloak, her face pale beneath the dim light. Her eyes were open now — unfocused, but awake.
For a long while, neither spoke. Only the rustle of wind through leaves filled the silence.
Then, softly — a voice.
"We need to go to Dravenhart."
Ray turned sharply. Her tone wasn't loud, but it carried something different — not panic, not despair, but quiet determination threaded through exhaustion.
Zelene pushed herself up, her legs trembling, one hand braced on the tree beside her. Her face was streaked with dried tears and soot. When she spoke again, her voice cracked — not from fear, but from the effort of holding herself together.
"They'll go there next." She met his eyes for the first time. "If they attacked Evandelle, then Dravenhart's not safe either."
Ray rose slowly, brushing dirt from his coat. "Zelene, you're in no condition to travel. You can barely stand."
"I can." The words came too quickly, too firmly. "I have to."
He frowned, stepping closer. "Listen to me — if what you're saying is true, then Dravenhart will be swarming with soldiers by now. You'll walk straight into another slaughter."
"I can't just stay here," she shot back — voice trembling, but fierce. "Kael—he's still there. He doesn't know what happened. They'll come for him too."
Her breath hitched; she steadied it with effort. "If I lose him too, then—" She stopped herself. Swallowed.
Ray studied her — the dirt-streaked face, the shaking hands clenched at her sides, the hollow eyes that still somehow burned with something left of her father's will.
He sighed, dragging a hand down his face. "You don't even know who's behind this, Zelene. You saw what they did. You go back, and they'll finish the job."
She lifted her head slowly. Her gaze was tired, yes — but steady. "It was the Crown Prince, I saw him."
Her words hung in the air like the last echo of a bell — fragile, yet unyielding.
Ray stared at her for a long moment. There it was again — that Evandelle defiance, the same quiet fire her father once carried in council halls.
Finally, he muttered, "Gods help me," and turned away, fastening his cloak. "You're impossible."
Zelene didn't respond. She simply adjusted the cloak around her shoulders and took a step forward, toward the faint light filtering between the trees.
Ray followed after a beat, falling into stride beside her. "Fine," he said. "But if you faint again, I'm carrying you."
Her lips twitched — the faintest, ghost of a smile that never quite reached her eyes. "You wouldn't dare."
He didn't answer. Just looked at her once, long and searching, before facing the path ahead.
The forest loomed vast before them — endless, cold, uncertain.
Zelene didn't look back.
There was nothing left behind her but ash.