CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE:
The safehouse felt smaller with every passing hour, like the walls were closing in on the fragile peace they’d tried so hard to rebuild. Lyra stood at the narrow window, watching the first hints of dawn paint the trees outside, her arms wrapped tight around her middle as if she could hold herself together by sheer force of will.
“I can’t stop seeing her face,” she said, voice cracking in the quiet room. “Marissa sitting there like she hadn’t spent months smiling at June, reading her stories, making her laugh. How do I explain that to our daughter? How do I look Theo in the eye and tell him the world isn’t full of people waiting to hurt us?”
Dimitri crossed the room in two strides, pulling her back against his chest. His arms were strong but trembling, the same way t
