31. Alone and Lost

While Jayden busied himself in forging new friendships, Rose recovered from her fever, her body healing but her heart weighed down by a singular, merciless thought—Felix’s death. She couldn’t escape it. Every memory of her brother replayed in her mind, like the flickering scenes of a shattered film reel. Felix had been her anchor, her protector, her everything. Now, without him, she was adrift, swallowed by the storm of her grief. She knew one thing with absolute certainty: she would never truly heal until she avenged his death. But Rose was young, untested, and hopelessly naive about the dangers she would face. Worse still, she was utterly alone. This loneliness, this raw vulnerability, was like blood in the water to someone like Hawkbone. He saw her pain not as a tragedy, but as an opportunity. That fateful day, Rose found herself at the park again. She settled onto a bench, the wooden seat cold against her skin, her thoughts a chaotic spiral of anger and despair. She barely had time