Elena's POV
"Damian."
I barely breathed the word, but his eyes snapped open instantly, every trace of exhaustion gone in a heartbeat, replaced by the same coiled alertness I'd seen in him that very first week in the lobby. He was on his feet before I'd finished processing the movement, one hand raised toward me in a silent command to stay exactly where I was.
The knock came again, soft, deliberate, three measured taps against old wood.
Ruth appeared in the doorway from the back room, phone still in hand, her face pale in the dim firelight. "That's not the signal," she whispered. "Nobody we trust would knock like that."
Damian crossed to the window instead of the door, easing the curtain aside just enough to look out without exposing himself fully. Whatever he saw made his shoulders dr
