"It's the same door," Nash answers.
"Feels louder."
Ruby glances over. "Everything feels louder when everyone's auditioning for a funeral."
Candace's eyes cut to her. "We aren't."
Ruby lifts her water in mock toast. "Could've fooled me."
"You good?" Frankie asks Sloane, stepping closer.
"Yeah. Just tired."
Candace flicks her attention to me. Her brow lifts. A question she won't ask in front of the room. I give her a short nod. Later.
The side hall opens, and Phoenix steps through. McKenzie's with him, her shoulder nearly brushing his bicep. Amelia follows, posture straight, eyes forward. Felix brings up the rear, carrying the same stillness Malachi does. Both of them have it. The kind that runs in the blood.
The room absorbs them. That tells me everything.
East murmurs, "He walks as though he paid for the floor."
Ruby laughs. "He walks as though he'll bill you for breathing wrong."
Candace tilts her head. "He walks as though he's making sure nobody else does."
Phoenix sweeps the room once. When his eyes land on me, his jaw sets. A nod so small it barely counts. We hold the look a beat longer than necessary.
McKenzie tracks faces. Watches hands. She stands the way people stand when they've trained the flinch out of themselves.
Amelia pauses just inside the light, chin lifted. She lets the room come to her.
Malachi does.
The change is immediate. He shifts his weight, planting it through both boots, and stays where he is, but his whole posture reaches. His sister. The muscles in his jaw work once, twice, before he gets himself under control.
Candace touches his arm. "You okay?"
He doesn't look away from Amelia. "Yeah."
"That sounded as though it cost you."
He exhales. "It sounded controlled."
Amelia meets his look. Holds it. Neither of them would break it first, not if the walls came down around them.
Candace hooks two fingers into Malachi's belt loop, a silent anchor, drops away. She knows what this is. She was there when they found her. "Hey," she says to Phoenix.
"Candace." Just her name.
East slots himself at Darla's side with a hand at her hip. She melts into the contact.
"Hey," he murmurs near her ear. "You with me?"
"I'm here."
East glances at the faint curve of her belly. Repositions himself so his body blocks the door's line of sight.
Ruby grins. "If you hover any harder, you're going to start photosynthesizing."
