The days following the letter's arrival passed in a tension unlike anything we had experienced even during the height of Callahan's active threat, the uncertainty of not knowing exactly what Vesper intended, or when she planned to make contact, wearing at everyone's nerves despite the compound's outward return to something resembling normal routine.
I paused the healing sessions with Silas's pack, Mabel's caution about depleting something more significant than we currently understood weighing heavily enough that I could not in good conscience continue giving freely until we had more clarity about exactly what risk that giving actually carried.
Silas took the pause with more grace than I expected, understanding immediately when Ronan explained the situation during a brief, tense phone cal
