Elias’s POV

The academy had a way of swallowing sound.

Maybe that was why secrets survived here longer than people.

For days after the confrontation in the training cell, Ronan didn’t speak to me. Not directly, at least. But silence has weight, and his was heavy enough to crush air. Everywhere I turned, I felt it, across the sparring rings, down the corridors, even during night drills when the lights dimmed to a low blue haze and most Alphas collapsed into their bunks like machines cooling ...