Alexander POV
She didn’t ask me to come.
But I went anyway.
Not because of the bond—though that tug was always there, quietly pulling beneath my ribs—but because I couldn’t stop myself.
I didn’t touch a weapon. Didn’t offer corrections. I just stood at the edge of the training circle near the trees, arms crossed, watching her.
She was pushing herself again.
Too hard. Too fast. Too much.
Her form was clean—deadly, even—but her energy was reckless. It wasn’t practice. It was punishment. She threw each strike like she was trying to empty something out of herself. Like pain could quiet whatever roared inside her chest.
Scarlett was pulsing right under her skin, where they could not see it, and I could. I caught the glimpse of it in the way the wind drifted, in her breath, which had tha
