Chapter 129

Aisha's POV The day Simon left, the neutral hospital felt different. It wasn't that the halls were quieter, there were still cries from the injured, still healers running with blood-streaked hands, but the steady weight of his presence was gone. I could feel it through the bond, that empty space where he should have been. I tried to drown it out with work. Every room I stepped into, I forced myself to focus only on the wounded. Flesh to stitch. Bones to set. Wolves clinging to life. It was all I could do. If I stopped, even for a second, I knew I would feel the hollow ache of his absence and the fear of what was waiting for him out there. Emma was the only one who saw through me. "You can't keep going like this," she told me, pressing a cup of water into my hands as I bent over a soldier with a chest wound. "You'll burn yourself out." I didn't look at her. "If I stop, who takes my place? You know how many more are coming." She hesitated. "I know why you're doing this. But you won't hel