Chapter 101

• "I was awake… but pieces of me weren’t."
• RUBEN
• The evening stretched into midnight, and I could feel my body aching with exhaustion, but I couldn't sleep. Raya lay beside Kathrine, her head resting gently on her chest, but something was wrong. Her skin burned with fever, a quiet warning that something was terribly off. It was like the faint echo of Arlet’s absence was pulling at my heart, making me feel the weight of her being gone even more. Arlet... how could we find her when there were no leads, no trace? The investigation had hit a dead end.