Elena's POV
"Ruth told me what happened."
Damian's voice was careful when he found me in the small conference room an hour later, closing the door behind him with a quiet click that somehow felt louder than it should have. "The wall. Victor's conversation."
"I don't know how I heard it," I admitted, still shaken from everything Ruth had said, from the texter's message still sitting unanswered on my phone. "It shouldn't have been possible. You said it yourself, weeks ago, that ordinary humans don't develop that kind of hearing."
"They don't." He crossed the room slowly, studying me with the same searching intensity he'd used that very first week, though the curiosity behind it now carried genuine concern rather than simple assessment. "Elena, I need to ask you something, and I need you
