Elias’s POV
Maria could hear me.
That one thought had me rooted to the cold marble floor, my hand still braced against the wall like it could steady the chaos inside me. I heard the faint shifting behind her door, subtle, rhythmic movements, but it was the way she paused each time I paced that broke something in me. Each shuffle from her side stopped when my steps grew loud, and resumed when I went quiet.
She was reacting to sound.
I stayed there in stunned silence, the noise in my chest louder than anything I’d ever heard in my life. My heart was punching against my ribs like it was trying to get out. I tried to reason with myself, maybe it was coincidence. Maybe it was something else.
But it happened three times.
And on the third, I stopped cold and whispered to the air like it wou
