Chapter 76
Kael did not remember deciding to run. One moment he had been standing still with the weight of everything pressing down on him, and the next his body was already moving, carrying him forward without direction. It did not feel like a choice. It felt like something inside him refusing to let him stay, forcing him away before he could break in a place he could not take back.
The farther he went, the harder it became to breathe. The air felt wrong against his lungs, too thin and too heavy at the same time, as if it resisted him with every step. His pace slowed only when his legs began to give out, his movements losing rhythm until he finally stopped somewhere unfamiliar, surrounded by dark, broken ground and trees that stood too still to feel real.
