ALEXANDER
A strange silence settled over the room the moment Kyle left and the door shut behind him.
Not normal silence.
The kind that came before something dangerous.
I stayed where Helen instructed me, lying inside the markings she had drawn on the floor, while Roman remained unconscious a short distance away from me and Faye lay completely still across from us.
The sight of her made my chest ache again.
Every instinct inside me hated this.
Seeing her motionless like that.
Cold.
It didn’t look real.
It looked wrong.
My eyes lingered on her for a second longer before Helen’s movement pulled my attention away.
She had already begun preparing.
Her expression was sharp now, fully focused, all traces of earlier emotion buried beneath concentration. The room itself had changed too
