Ayla's POV
The hallway felt thick with waiting before I even opened my door.
I hesitated with my hand on the knob, feeling the shift in the air, that invisible current running just beneath the surface of the morning quiet. Then I stepped out.
No laughter. No urgent voices. Just a hush that hummed with attention.
Their presence reached me before I fully registered them, the weight of it, the way the floorboards gave slightly under their boots. Kael leaned against the wall like he'd been there a while, arms crossed, eyes calm but tracking everything. Soren stood a little further back, half in shadow, his gaze moving over the hallway in that methodical way that never quite looked like scanning but caught everything anyway.
Ryker straightened when I appeared. His eyes found mine first, th
