The moment Zane made it back to his dorm, he slammed the door shut, twisted the lock, and leaned against it like he was sealing out an invading army.
"Nope. No Mira. No nobles. No 'why are you blindfolded' questions. Done."
He dragged himself to the bed, not even sparing a glance at Asher who was lying there, muttering something under his breath in his usual portal-sorcerer trance.
"Yeah, yeah, talk to your invisible friends or whatever," Zane muttered, pulling the curtains.
Instead of collapsing immediately, though, he did something rare. Something he hadn't done in weeks. He tugged off the blindfold.
The world didn't explode. Nobody gasped. There wasn't some big reveal.
But his head… felt lighter. He hadn't even realized the pressure until now, like the blindfold had been squeezing a headache into him for days.
"Wow," Zane murmured. "I can actually feel my brain cells… still dying, but slower this time."
With that, he flopped onto the mattress, face buried in the pillow. The room was dim, quiet except for Asher's mumbling. For the first time in what felt like forever, Zane let himself drift into sleep—in broad daylight, blindfold off, finally at ease.