"How do you want to do this?" Kael asked. His voice was steady, almost bored, eyes locked on Sole. "Over coffee?" He let it hang, then added, "Or we can just hug it out."
Sole's stare didn't shift. His jaw moved once, a muscle tightening under the skin. "Stop yapping and fight."
His gaze lingered a second longer before the corner of his mouth twitched upward — not enough to be a smile, more like the ghost of one that had already died. The noise around them dimmed, not because it stopped, but because it didn't matter.
They stood in the center of the training ground, the crowd pushed back just far enough to give them space. Faces lined the edge. Sole's family was there. Liz sat beside her parents, spine straight, eyes fixed on him with that look — disappointment wrapped in silence. She'd already decided this was his fault.
Alice sat in her lap, legs kicking lightly as she cheered, an ice cone in her small hand. He didn't know where she'd found it. He didn't ask.
