Eira's POV
I wake before dawn.
The apartment is silent except for the hum of the refrigerator and the soft sound of Soren breathing in his sleep. I slip out of bed, my bare feet cold against the linoleum, and kneel beside the radiator.
The loose floorboard lifts easily now. I've done this enough times that my fingers know exactly where to press.
The lockbox is still there.
I pull it out and open the lid. Inside: three stacks of cash, a burner phone, a folded map of the city's transit system, and a fake ID that cost me two weeks' wages.
I count the money. I check the phone's battery. I trace the route I've memorized—train to the coast, bus to the border, disappear into the human territories where neither shifters nor fae bother to look.
Then I reach into my coat pocket and pull out t
