VALIK POV
The sound hit first.
Boots—heavy, hurried, wrong—slamming against stone just beyond my door.
Maethys startled like a struck animal.
She scrambled backward, breath tearing from her chest, eyes wide and wild as her body searched for escape that didn’t exist. Her heart spiked so fast it was almost painful to hear, a frantic, rattling rhythm that scraped along my nerves.
She wasn’t thinking.
She was running.
I crossed the space in two strides and caught her before she could find the floor. She stiffened in my arms, a sharp inhale locking in her throat as I lifted her without thinking, pressing her against my chest, one hand firm between her shoulders, the other cradling her head.
I murmured, low and steady. “You’re safe. I’ve got you.”
Her pulse fluttered violently beneath m
