Nevara
I don’t know how long I stayed frozen before I moved.
Everything in the room felt wrong—too quiet, too still, like the air itself hadn’t caught up to what had just happened. My eyes kept dragging back to Kael, to the way he held Reddick’s body like if he let go, something worse would happen.
Like this wasn’t already the worst.
I forced myself forward.
My hands reached him before my mind fully did, wrapping my arms around him, trying to ground him—trying to ground myself.
“I’m so sorry,” I said, my voice unsteady despite how hard I tried to keep it together. “Kael, I don’t know what just happened, but I’m so sorry—”
For a second, he let me.
I felt it—the slight shift in him, the way his body leaned just enough to accept the contact, like some part of him still recognized me,
