The pharmacy felt smaller now, suffocating with eyes on Kael. The survivors whispered, their awe clinging to the air like smoke that wouldn’t clear. He ignored them, rolling his shoulders with a lazy shrug as if he hadn’t just dragged a girl back from death using methods no one else dared to imagine.
He rolled his shoulders, tugged his shirt into place, and strode toward the back exit. His grin carried that familiar edge of danger—the kind that said he didn’t care if they stared, only that they remembered who was in control.
Carla was the first to follow him out into the dim back alley. Her face was flushed—not just from the flames staining the sky, but from what had happened behind the shelves. She moved stiffly, arms crossed under her chest, biting her lip.
"Kael," she said finally, h
