( this chapter is told from raina's pov)
My grandfather's words were the first thing I thought about when I opened my eyes.
Felix isn't dead.
I had barely slept. Every time exhaustion pulled me under those three words dragged me back up. By the time pale morning light appeared around the curtain edges I had given up and lay on my back staring at the ceiling instead.
Not alive. Not safe. Not well.
Just not dead.
The distinction bothered me more the longer I sat with it.
I dressed and stepped into the hallway. The estate was already moving. Servants through the corridors, guards at their positions, the low sound of conversation drifting up from the kitchen. The compound carrying on exactly as it always had, as though my entire understanding of the last four years had not shifted the night before.
I found my grandfather outside on the stone garden path, hands folded behind his back, dark kimono moving in the morning breeze. When he saw me approaching he stopped.
"Let's go."
