ARIA
Rook was locked away. We finally had a real way to bring down Victor Blackwood. The baby was safe. By all measures, the mission had ended better than it had any right to. It had fallen apart in ways no one could have predicted, yet we were standing. Alive. Together.
There should have been relief.
But the way Kael stood by the door and looked at me made my chest ache. His jaw was tight. His shoulders were stiff. His eyes held too much.
He looked like a man about to break something precious.
Fear crept in before he even spoke. The words he might say formed in my mind, one after another, each worse than the last. It felt easier to spare him the effort. Easier to cut myself first.
“You don’t have to say it,” I told him quietly. My voice sounded calm, but it felt thin. “You really d
