The ride was tense, quiet, save for the occasional snap of a twig or rustle of leaves as the forest thinned and thickened again. Edris, ever the diligent tracker, led the group with his usual grace, crouching low to inspect marks in the dirt or broken branches. The weight of Kyran's absence pressed heavily on everyone there save for Aurelia, it seemed, who rode beside their horse in silence.
Caspian, seated behind Elara, exuded calm. His hands lightly held the reins, his solid presence somehow reassuring despite his wounds and the urgency of their search. But Elara couldn't ignore the subtle tension in his shoulders. He was doing what he always did—bearing the weight of everyone else's expectations, as well as his own.
The heat from his chest against her back was grounding, yet it also sparked an odd feeling in her—something tangled between nervousness and disbelief that they were in such close proximity.
