Seraphina's POV
I stood outside my dorm room longer than I probably should have, my hand hovering just inches away from the door handle like it might burn me if I touched it. The hallway was quiet in that strange, late-evening way too still and too calm, like the world was holding its breath. I wished I could do the same.
I really didn't want to go back inside.
After leaving Electra's room and parting ways with Penelope, I'd taken a walk without really thinking about where I was going. My feet carried me around the campus paths I knew too well, past the gardens, the fountains, and the tall stone buildings that once felt exciting and new when I started getting used to the idea of being a part of Elysium. Everything looked the same, and yet, everything felt wrong.
It hit me somewhere between the east wing and the courtyard that I'd been gone for weeks, and not gone like on a trip, but gone like… absent from my own life.
