Damien's POV
I stand outside her door, and every sound that comes through it drives straight into my chest like a blade.
She's screaming. Not only crying. Screaming, the kind of sound that doesn't belong to fear alone anymore, something torn loose from somewhere much deeper, and I feel it land in me one raw thread at a time.
I don't remember deciding to move. One moment I'm standing still with my hand hovering near the doorframe, and the next I've crossed the width of the corridor and back again, twice, three times, my boots landing hard enough that the sound comes back at me off the walls like something chasing me down. My whole chest feels too small for what's happening inside it. I can't stop pacing. If I stop, I don't know what I'll do instead, and that thought alone keeps my legs m
