Soren's POV
"Wake up!" Blaze ordered, and I softly moaned under my breath.
"What's going on? It's the middle of the..."
"She's here," Blaze said, cutting me off.
My eyes opened slowly, adjusting to the darkness filling the corners of my room. For a moment I thought I was wrong—thought I'd misread the bond the way you sometimes did in the half-space between sleep and waking.
Then I saw her.
Ayla stood a few steps from the bed, motionless in the dark. Her hoodie hung loose off her shoulders, sleeves swallowing her hands, hair tangled from sleep, face pale in the thin light coming through the window. She wasn't moving. She was just standing there, like something barely holding itself together.
I looked at her without moving—the way her chest rose and fell too quickly, the brightness in
