I lengthened my stride.
Ezra jogged to keep up. “Cristian?”
I ignored him. Thinking required distance and silence.
“Cristian,” he tried again, voice thinner this time. “I’m scared for Nadia.”
I stopped walking.
He swallowed hard. “I really fucked up. I made the bond worse. I didn’t mean to. I thought if I analyzed the magical frequency, I could reverse it. Or isolate the drain. Or figure out aworkaround.” His voice cracked. “I was trying to help. I swear I was trying to help.”
He wasn’t lying. I would have heard his lie in his pulse.
I turned fully to face him. Ezra didn’t step back. He didn’t run. He didn’t flinch. He just looked at me like he expected to be punished.
“Ezra,” I said quietly.
His breath caught.
“Anyone who does not fail from time to time is not doing anything.”
He blinked rapidly. “What?”
“You were trying to save her. You acted out of desperation and hope, not cruelty.” I held his gaze. “For that, I am grateful to you.”
Ezra’s mouth fell open.
I stepped closer. “Help me save her.”
For the first time since I’d met him, Ezra looked genuinely moved. His eyes shone with something raw and human.
He scrubbed at his face. “I–I will. I promise. Whatever you need.”
I nodded once. “Good.”
We continued walking in silence.
The front door creaked softly as I pushed it open. The house was still. Too still. Lena was asleep upstairs. Ezra went to the kitchen, set up his laptop, and started typing furiously.
I went straight to Nadia’s room.
Nadia lay curled beneath the blankets, one hand tucked under her cheek, breathing shallowly. Her hair spilled across the pillow in unruly waves, and the sight nearly broke me. It shattered the remaining fragments of my restraints.
I removed my shoes and my jacket, then got into the bed beside her. She stirred faintly as I slid an arm around her waistand pulled her back against me. My body curved around hers effortlessly, like I had been made to fit this shape, this woman.
Her scent filled my lungs as her warmth bled into my chest. The bond steadied the instant I touched her, strength flowing back into me as if she were sunlight and I were starved of it.
I rested my forehead between her shoulder blades. I had not known this feeling could exist. Not in my life. Not for someone like me.
Love.
I had thought it impossible.
And yet the truth of it consumed me. Every breath she took, every fragile heartbeat, was a vow I would keep.
She shifted in her sleep, mumbling something, and snuggled closer.
My chest ached with something I had no name for.
