She follows, quiet at first, then gently takes my wrist, grounding me like only she can.
“Caden…” Her voice is soft now. Not angry. Just there.
I stop. Still trembling. “I know,” I whisper. “I know he didn’t mean anything. I know. But it felt like someone else had what’s mine. Like he was holding something he never should’ve touched. Something inside me just… snapped.”
She nods slowly, eyes wide and kind. “I get it. The bond—it’s overwhelming. I was struggling too. I had to imagine your sparring partner was a toddler just to get through it without ripping his braid off.”
I blink, caught off guard. “A toddler?”
“Yeah,” she shrugs. “It was either that or start a blood feud.”
Despite everything, I laugh. A real one this time. “We’re insane.”
“We are,” she agrees. “But it’s our kind of
