NORA
He won't see it coming!
I went to the training field because I needed the air — and because I needed him to see me where he could not pretend I did not exist.
The men were already in formation when I arrived: shields raised, spears sharp, boots kicking up dust in neat lines. Cardan stood at the center, broad and still, watching their rhythm like a metronome watches time. His presence always felt like a physical thing — heavy, making the air denser. Even now, with sweat darkening his shirt and the men around him shouting, he looked the same: everything and nothing all at once.
“Alpha,” one of the guards barked when they saw me, like they thought I’d come to beg. I kept walking.
Cardan’s head turned slow. He saw me. His face didn’t change the way mine had before — no shock, no smal
