CHAPTER 20
Timeline: 3 Days After the Binding
The house didn’t heal overnight, but it breathed easier. Boards came off the windows. The front door was replaced, the splintered wood hauled away and burned in a bonfire at the edge of the property. The air no longer hummed with fear—it hummed with something else: peace. Purpose. The quiet, steady thrum of the bond that tied us all together.
I stood on the porch watching them work—Cole, Knox, Jax, Zane, Micah—laughing, shoving each other playfully, tossing insults and tools back and forth like nothing had ever changed. Like they hadn’t stood on the edge of war three nights prior. Like one of them hadn’t won and the others hadn’t lost. It hadn’t felt like losing. Not really. It felt like we’d all finally stepped into the life we were always
