MAETHYS POV
I turned and followed her eyes.
The box.
My throat tightened. “Yeah.”
“You brought it with you,” she observed.
Nayla stood, careful and quiet, and walked closer to it. She didn’t touch it yet—just looked.
“What’s inside?” she asked.
I joined her, standing beside her shoulder.
“I don’t know,” I admitted.
Nayla glanced at me sharply. “You’ve never opened it?”
I shook my head. “It was my grandmother’s. She gave it to me before…” Before everything. Before she’d started looking at the horizon like she could see something coming that no one else could.
I swallowed. “Before she died.”
Nayla’s expression softened. “Why didn’t you open it?”
Because I was afraid it would change everything… again.
Instead I shrugged, too tight to be casual. “I didn’t want to… do it wrong.”
