R A V E N N A
I reached Kai’s room in a heartbeat.
He was asleep, curled under a blanket far too soft for the world he’d just been born into. His tiny chest rose and fell, peaceful, innocent. He didn’t know. I picked him up and left for the safe house, everyone was there, my parents, my best friends, old people, pups.
He didn’t understand the screaming that echoed through the land, the smell of burning wood, the metallic scent of blood that had already begun to seep into the air.
But I did.
And I couldn’t pretend to run anymore.
I stood there for a long beat, my palm pressed over my son’s chest. I felt the heat of his heartbeat, steady and alive beneath my hand. But all I could think about was the dream. The battlefield. Zane’s blood. The moment the fire swallowed the ground and I c
