Croft POV
After Jennifer collapsed into a quiet, exhausted stillness in my arms, I knew what needed to happen next. Her mother and sister, Happy, were still in the hospital waiting room, shaking, crying, and clinging to each other like people standing on a cliff’s edge with the wind trying to push them off.
They had just lost Peculiar. They had nearly lost Jennifer too. And they were alone in a city that had become a battlefield. I couldn’t allow that. Not for them.
I stepped away from Jennifer briefly, leaving her with Lucy, who refused to leave her side. My chest felt tight seeing her like that, but I needed to steady her family first.
When I reached the hallway, her mother lifted her head the moment she saw me. Her eyes were swollen, red, and trembling.
“Croft,” Mrs. Davis, Jenn
