Rowan's P.O.V.
I didn’t want this. I knew I didn’t. But when she stepped into the room, her presence like smoke curling through the air, I felt a pull, something primal and impossible to ignore.
I had been sitting there, alone with my thoughts, the glass in my hand nothing more than an excuse to pretend I could numb the ache inside me. The ache that had followed Kiera’s absence, the silence between us that stretched long and cold. The space she left was suffocating, and yet here I was, sitting in it, pretending it didn’t matter.
“Rowan?”
Her voice—soft, like velvet—pulled me from my thoughts, dragging me back to the present. Lila. She stood in the doorway, her silhouette framed by the dim light.
It took a moment for my brain to catch up. I had thought the house was empty, the night qu
