"Same thing."
I set Kova down and she immediately starts exploring, running her hands along the bannister and peering into the sitting room like she's never been here before. Kaelen follows at a more sedate pace, his wings half-unfurled in a way that tells me he's about to ask if he can fly around the house.
"No flying inside," I say before he can open his mouth.
He deflates slightly but doesn't argue.
Lora closes the door behind them and turns to face me fully, her expression softening into something closer to worry than annoyance. "Seriously, though. Are you all right?"
"I'm fine."
"That's zarrynshit."
"Mom said a bad word!" Kova calls from the other room.
"And if you repeat it, I'll tell your father!" Lora shouts back, not taking her eyes off me. Then, quieter, "You're not fine. You've been withdrawn since the Masquerade. Avoiding me. Avoiding everyone."
I turn away from her, heading toward the kitchen because I need something to do with my hands. Need to not be having this conversation. "I've been busy. The bakeries don't run themselves."
"The bakeries have managers for a reason." She follows me, her footsteps light against the wood floors. "And you've never been 'too busy' to visit before. So what's going on?"
"Nothing's going on."
"Lorenth."
The way she says my name—soft and insistent and laced with genuine concern—makes something in my chest twist. I grab a glass from the cabinet, fill it with water I don't want, and down half of it in one go.
The tightness doesn't ease.
Lora leans against the counter beside me, her wings rustling as she settles. For a moment, neither of us speaks. I can hear Kova and Kaelen in the sitting room, their voices raised in some game that involves a lot of dramatic sound effects.
Then Lora says, very quietly, "Did something happen? At the Masquerade?"
My hand tightens around the glass.
"Because you've been different since that night." She's watching me too closely now, reading every micro-expression I try to hide. "Distracted. Like your mind is somewhere else. And I've seen you rubbing your chest endlessly."
Shit.
I set the glass down harder than necessary. "It's nothing."
"It's clearly not nothing." Her voice rises with excitement, and gods help me, I know that tone. "Oh my gods. Youmetsomeone, didn't you?"
Senna's face flashes through my mind. Those storm-gray eyes looking up at me in the lantern light. The way she laughed at my cynicism about the festival. The way she kissed me like she was drowning and I was air.
The way she ran from me like I was poison.
I look away, jaw tight, and Lora actuallysqueals.
"You did! You met someone!" She grabs my arm, shaking it like we're children again and she just won some petty sibling argument. "I knew it. I knew the Masquerade would work for you. What's her name? Is she xaphan? High caste? When do I get to meet her?"
"There's nothing to meet."
"What does that mean?"
I pull free of her grip and move to the other side of the kitchen, putting distance between us. The thread in my chest yanks again, that constant reminder of what I found and lost in the span of one night.
"It means she's gone." The words taste bitter. "She left. I don't know where she is."
