Fatigue took over my body as I took every step back toward my Academy dorm room.
Now that the threat seemed to be no more, every inch of adrenaline left my system, leaving only the heaviness of exhaustion behind. My legs dragged with each stride, the hallway lights blurring into soft glows in my peripheral vision.
The once-pristine road of the dormitory felt strangely foreign now.
Too quiet.
Too untouched.
As if the chaos I'd just endured existed in an entirely different world.
While walking back, no matter what I did, my thoughts kept drifting to Avi.
The decision to kill him instead of imprisoning him—handling it now instead of waiting for a safer time—I'd thought about it a lot. Over and over, I'd weighed the risks, the outcomes, the consequences. But no matter how many times I turned it over in my head, the same question kept surfacing.
Would Ryen have killed him?
Was there truly no other way?
Even now, my answer hadn't changed.
