(Julian's POV)
A month.
A month without sleep. The noise kept working its way back into my head, and only the memory of bitter orange, cedarwood, and one low note could quiet it.
Every night began the same way. I would close my eyes, hear the noise climb, and reach for a bracelet small enough to disappear inside my fist.
Remembering her note bought me a few minutes. Sometimes it bought an hour.
My security team had searched for the woman from the dark. She had walked into my worst episode and stopped it with a hum. I needed to know who she was.
They checked staff lists, private entrances, and every camera that had survived the outage. The darkness and the crowd had hidden her face.
By the end of the month, the team had learned to enter my office only when summoned.
All I had was he
