NEVA POV
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I counted to five.
It is the number I have learned to count to before I respond to things that detonate inside me, because my first response is almost never my best one. Three is not enough. Ten is too long — too long and people think you've gone somewhere, and you have to come back, and coming back takes energy I prefer to spend on the actual response.
Five is right.
One.
Mara standing in the entrance of Bekah's diner looking at me with those frightened eyes that I had known since I was small, that had looked at me across the yards of my childhood pack with the specific warmth of someone who had decided I was worth watching out for.
Two.
The man — Deren — still in the doorway. Not moving. Not looking at me anymore. Looking at Ryke with the expression of a man waiting
