Malrik POV

I hadn’t realized just how bone-deep my exhaustion ran until the heaviness of sleep finally released me, leaving me suspended in the quiet blur of late afternoon.

Sunlight spilled through the curtains in muted gold, slanting across the floor in long, fractured beams. The clock on the nightstand glared back three o’clock.

Dravina wasn’t there.

The stillness in the room felt wrong, a hollow ache that gnawed at the edges of my thoughts. I pushed upright, shaking off the haze ...