Vael's POV
Three days.
Three agonizing, sleepless days of pure hell.
I hadn't slept more than a few scattered minutes at a time. Every time I closed my eyes, Lirien's face haunted me, those wide violet eyes filled with terror, his silver-white hair messy and tangled, his soft voice crying out my name in the darkness. The image tortured me relentlessly. I barely ate. I couldn't taste anything anyway. My body ran on caffeine, rage, and a bone-deep desperation that kept me moving when everything inside me wanted to collapse.
The apartment, once our sanctuary, now felt like a tomb. Lirien's presence lingered everywhere, but his sweet scent had started to fade, and that terrified me more than anything. It felt like he was slipping away from me.
