✦ Chapter 36 ✦
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Esper stood at the river's edge, silent and unmoving, as though he had been carved from the night itself.
The water below him was dark, sluggish, reflecting the sky above like a broken mirror. No stars dared to show themselves tonight. Instead, heavy crimson clouds drifted lazily across the heavens, staining everything beneath them red, as though the world itself were wounded and bleeding slowly. The wind rolled in from the river, cool and damp, lifting Esper's ink-black hair and pushing it back from his sharp features.
He stared into the water, eyes unfocused.
It was something Philip did whenever the weight of the world grew too heavy—stand somewhere quiet and think until the noise inside his head dulled. Esper had picked up the habit without even realizing it.
Thinking of him.
The thought came unbidden, sharp and unwelcome.
