I watched as the study door had clicked shut behind Serenya, soft but final, and it felt louder than it should have.
I stayed standing where I was, between Kaelith and the door, my hands loose at my sides—because if I clenched them, I wasn’t sure I’d still be the man she needed to see right now.
Across the coffee table, Jax exhaled a low whistle. “Well. That was heavy and intense.”
No one laughed.
Dad closed his eyes and leaned his head against the back of the chair; he suddenly looked tired, his expression didn’t change, but I saw the way his shoulders dropped a fraction. He was cataloguing, adjusting and already calculating his next moves. I was still stuck on the look in Sereyna’s eyes when she suddenly stood and said she needed to leave. The way she’d been staring at nothing. I dra
