Jade’s POV
The storm had trapped us in the library longer than I thought possible. Time felt suspended, stretched into something uncomfortable. Outside, the wind howled through the cracks in the old windows, and rain battered the roof like an angry drumbeat. The lights flickered now and then, casting brief shadows that danced along the bookshelves.
I was curled up in one of the chairs near the arched window, my legs drawn to my chest and a thick novel resting forgotten in my lap. The words on the pages no longer held my attention. They blurred together, unreadable. All I could focus on was the space behind me—the quiet but weighty sense that Hunter was nearby again.
He’d disappeared after our earlier encounter, retreating into one of the library’s aisles like a ghost. I had expected tha
