Chapter 97

• Zara POV
• The morning sunlight fell through the classroom windows in harsh lines, cutting across the rows of empty desks, highlighting dust motes that danced lazily in the air. I slipped into my usual seat near the middle of the class, close enough to the front to see the teacher clearly, but far enough to keep a low profile. My books were still warm from the backpack, and I sorted them carefully, arranging the pens and papers the way I liked. Routine. Normalcy. A fragile illusion.
• But my eyes couldn’t help wandering to the empty seat in front of me—Kai’s. The space he once occupied seemed to pulse with absence. A cold prickle ran down my spine, and I felt it again, that strange, gnawing sense that someone in this room knew something… knew exactly what had happened.