The tension woke Iva before the sun did.
She had been sleeping peacefully, curled against Caleb's warmth, the bond humming soft and steady between them. But something had shifted. Something had darkened the edges of her dream.
She opened her eyes.
Caleb was already awake. He stood by the window, his back to her, one hand braced against the stone frame. His shoulders were tight. His jaw was set. Even in the pale pre-dawn light, she could see the tension radiating from him like heat from a furnace.
Through the bond, she felt it.
Stress. Heavy and sharp and carefully contained. He was trying to block her from feeling it—she could sense the walls he had erected in his mind—but it leaked through anyway. Like water through cracks in a dam.
Iva sat up slowly, the sheets pooling around her w
