The walk from the council room to the grounds felt longer than it was.
I moved through it the way I had learned to move through things that were too large to hold all at once. One step at a time. One breath at a time. The stone floor under my feet and the corridor walls on either side and Caden walking beside me with the particular silence of a man who was giving me room to process rather than filling the space with reassurance.
I was grateful for that.
I was grateful for a great many things about him that I had not expected to be grateful for three days ago when I had climbed into a black car with Lillian beside me and tried not to show how frightened I was.
Rowan fell into step behind us without being asked.
We came through the main doors and across the grounds toward the gate and G
