Kael
The door opened, and everything that followed happened too fast for thought to keep up.
One second Nevara was stepping into the room, her voice just starting to form the question on her lips as she took in the tension none of us had bothered to hide. The next, Reddick turned toward her, and something in the way he moved—quick, decisive, wrong—triggered every instinct I had before my mind could even begin to catch up.
I didn’t think.
I didn’t hesitate.
I moved.
My body reacted the way it had been trained to react, the way it had always reacted when there was even the slightest chance of a threat near someone under my protection. I was closer to her than Thoren was, close enough that distance didn’t feel like a factor, only timing—and I knew, with the kind of certainty that lives
