MITCH POV
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Mitch was three hundred pages into Priya's journal when he found the entry that changed everything, and the specific cold clarity that settled over him told him, before he'd finished reading, that morning's peace was about to end abruptly.
He read it twice.
Then he was moving, fast, toward Ryke and Neva's room, the journal clutched in hands that weren't quite steady despite his usual composure.
He knocked, and when Ryke opened the door — still visibly wrapped in the specific unguarded warmth of the previous night — Mitch understood immediately he was about to shatter something precious with what he'd found.
"I'm sorry," he said. "I wouldn't interrupt if this wasn't urgent."
Neva appeared behind Ryke, already reading his expression, already bracing.
"What is it," she s
