Mira and Zayan stood in the center of the room.
Not startled. Not frozen in the way people go when they've been caught somewhere they shouldn't be.
They just… stood there.
Like they'd been waiting.
Zayan had his arms folded across his chest, those sharp blue eyes moving between her and Xhanes with the same quiet, unhurried weight she'd felt since the moment his wolves had surrounded the inn. Mira stood beside him, hands clasped, her expression open. Warm. The same warmth from the garden that morning that Phaeryl still hadn't been able to make sense of.
Neither of them said a word.
It was the silence that was worse. Deliberate. Patient.
Phaeryl could feel Xhanes step out from behind her.
She knew that stillness that moved through him. She'd seen it in the Keld palace the first time
