KAI POV
* you should see me in a crown - Billie Eilish*
They moved.
Not fast enough.
The first guard stepped forward, baton raised high like he thought it meant something—like authority was forged in steel and not in blood and fire. He wore a smirk too confident for someone so disposable. That smirk had tasted war, buried innocents, watched children cry in cages.
I was going to rip it off.
I held Reyes one second longer.
His breath was shallow. Skin pale. His blood had soaked through the back of my shirt — warm, sticky — clinging to my spine.
There was something unbearable about the way his eyes fluttered — not from fear, but from trust.
He believed I’d come back. That I could save him. That I was strong enough.
I wasn’t sure I was.
But I’d burn the world trying.
“I’ll come b
