The first thing I did when I entered our quad at the Academy of Harmony & Magic in Nivara Hall was to throw myself, then my cloak on the bed like it had personally offended me. It had. The walk from the gate to Goldspire had been long, the air too wet, and I was already tired of pretending to care about rules and routine again.

But mostly, I was mad.

We were all back, but Halven wasn’t. Everyone else had returned with bags and secrets and new hairstyles, and he had just... vanished.

“We should check on Aster.” I flopped dramatically into the nearest chair. “Maybe her face will finally crack if we ask the right question.”

Shara gave me that look, half disapproval, half agreement. She knew I was right. We all did.

Halven’s disappearance wasn’t something you just shrugged off, especially not if you knew him like we did. The guy was calm to a fault, but he didn’t just leave. He didn’t leave Rielle, his recent ex. He didn’t leave Shara, his best friend. He didn’t leave the quad without telling me.

He wouldn’t have left me.

Our bro-squad was broken without him. I really wanted us to be the bro-quad, but it was just the three of us—myself, Elio, and now that missing-milk-face Halven. We went from a bro-triangle to two guys—what was that? A straight line?

Freaking fire and gods’ balls.

My heart hurt.

“We should go,” Shara said, in that soft but firm way she uses when she has already made up her mind. “Rielle, would you want to I mean, you and Halven were close once.”

Rielle didn’t answer right away, but she stood. That was enough.

We all had a special bond with the Air Fae. Who couldn’t admire a man who escaped the Galestone Wars as little more than a child

Halven had the balls of the gods.

And I missed him.

The four of us, Garnexis, Shara, Rielle, and myself, crossed the Goldspire tower hall to Halven’s quad. Same stonework, same quiet arches, but the second we stepped inside, the temperature dropped.

Aster was there, posted by the window like she was made of marble and moonlight. Pale blue hair, skin like carved frost. Her arms were folded. Her mesmerizing violet eyes said nothing.

Of course she was stunning. Annoyingly so.

I leaned on the doorframe and raised an eyebrow. “Well, look who decided to keep the icicle throne warm while the rest of us were actually worried.”

She didn’t blink. “And look who decided to speak without thinking. Again.”

That old heat sparked to life in my chest. “You know, for someone who is supposed to be calm and collected, you are quick with the frostbite.”

She rolled her eyes. “Forgive me if I am not impressed by theatrics in leather and flame.”

Gods. It was so easy with her. Every word a spark waiting to ignite. Every look a provocation.

The spell was broken for a moment when Rielle nudged me from behind.

Whoops, didn’t mean to keep her out in the hall.

I moved inside but gave Aster a wide smile. “Oh, come on. Just admit you missed me.”

“I missed the silence more.”

“Forgive me if I thought maybe you had stopped pretending you didn’t care.”

“I care,” she said, voice smooth as the frozen lake. “I just don’t shout about it like a Summer Fae with something to prove.”

Shara had slipped around us to go into Halven’s room. I barely noticed, too caught up in the sharp edge of Aster’s words, the chill in her voice that always made me want to shout louder, push harder, burn through that frost.

“Guys,” Shara said, and something in her tone cut through everything. “I found something.”

She held up a torn, water damaged journal page.

We gathered around as she read. It was... messy. Panicked. Something about an Emberglyph. Voices. And then the line that made my spine go rigid: “Do not trust—”

Then just water damage. Like something wanted to erase the rest.

The silence that followed turned colder than Aster’s stare. The page trembled in Shara’s hands.

“We should copy this,” Garnexis said. “Create one for all of us.”

Before anyone answered, the door slammed open.

“Ardorion!”

I grinned. “Elio!”

My Stone Dragon friend, my straight-line buddy... Well that doesn’t sound too sexy, so just my buddy.

He bounded into the room like a thunderclap with legs, hair wild, eyes full of mischief, and arms wide enough to crush a dragon in a bear hug. He clapped a hand on my shoulder like we were still sparring on the dueling grounds.

“Missed you, flamebrain.”

“You too, rock skull.”

The tension in the room finally cracked.

Elio gave everyone a wide smile. “Hey, strangers.”

Then he filled us in. Lo, his other quadmate with Aster and Halven, had gone to the Spring Quadrant to check in with Halven’s adoptive parents. Still no word.

Aster spoke again, quieter, brittle. “I brought this to Lady Isa. Told her it is not natural, this disappearance.”

She looked at Shara and Rielle, then at me. “She brushed me off.”

Her voice did not break, but the air around her did. Her shoulders told the story. Just for a second.

I had to stop everything within me from taking her into my arms then. She was hurting like the rest of us. She was just better at hiding it.

Which meant she would not welcome my hug.

Would she welcome my hand on her throat? A kiss to scorch her from the inside, melt all of that ice around her?

Nope, not thinking about that right now.

We all left after that, splitting off like pieces of a spell unraveling. Everyone pretending they had something better to do. I didn’t pretend.

I needed air. Real air.

And maybe... distance from frost and violet eyes and the kind of silence that does not stay empty.