~HAZEL~

I couldn't bring myself to ask Ashton what had been burning in my chest for days. The forest had finally granted us a few quiet mornings—no surprise separation, no distant howls of whatever beasts the Soul Keepers had waiting for us, nothing crazy at all.

The silence should have been mercy. Instead, it was everything but that. Every rustle of leaves, every breath he took beside me, felt magnified, like the whole world had shrunk to the space between our bodies. The silence ...