Marcel:
The quiet in my quarters felt different when we returned.
It was the kind that followed violence, the kind that lingered in the air, clinging to your skin even after the blood was gone, and the kind that told me that we got out of this alive and successful, but it could have also ended differently. Plus, for me, it was victory… I knew that I couldn’t say the same thing about the way it was for her.
Eloise stood near the small table by the window, her shoulders still tense despite the way she tried to appear composed. Most of the blood had already been washed from her hands, but a faint streak remained above her eyebrow where a branch or blade must have grazed her during the fight.
I grabbed a clean cloth from the cabinet.
When I stepped back toward her, she noticed immediatel
