KILLIAN POV
I sat at that damn table and did everything I could not to tear apart the edge of the seat under my hand.
She was smiling. Talking. Holding it together so well you’d almost think this was easy for her. But I knew better.
I could feel her.
Anxiety hummed through our bond like static under skin, not loud but not quiet either. Like thunder in the distance—you don’t hear the storm yet, but you know it’s coming. It pulled at me. Every time she smiled too big or glanced at Derek like she was waiting to be scolded, I felt it. The tightness in her chest. The weight behind her laugh. The questions spinning behind her eyes.
She was doing great. Brave as hell. But I’d known warriors who looked steadier facing death than she did sitting in that warm room with people who loved her.
An
