Miri's Pov
The past few days had been nothing short of a storm inside my head.
Ever since the party, everything felt like it was unraveling. Riven had already been acting strange before that night, but after—after the girl, after his denial, after him nearly snapping and killing her—things spiraled worse. Now I hardly saw him at all. He was like a ghost roaming the academy, or maybe avoiding it entirely. And avoiding me.
I kept finding myself drifting back to Caius, trying to glean scraps of information, pieces of clarity. He seemed to be the last one who'd actually spoken to Riven in any meaningful way, though "meaningful" might've been a stretch.
"He said he's dealing with personal issues," Caius had told me quietly. "Stuff he can't talk about yet."
