ELIAS POV
I took a step toward her before I even realized I was moving, instinct overriding everything else, the need to close the distance hitting harder than anything ever had, because now that the danger was gone, now that no one had a weapon at her throat, all I could think about was getting my hands on her, checking her, making sure she was real, that she was standing, that she wasn’t about to drop because of belladonna or because of a s***h I hadn’t seen.
And she stopped me.
Not with force, at first.
Just a look. Sharp enough to stop me dead in my tracks. Cold and wary and way too harsh.
It hit me mid-step and I froze like I’d run into a wall, every muscle locking under my skin without me even questioning it, because there was something in her gaze that didn’t leave space for a
