Not wild.
Awake.
This time there is no fear in it.
Only certainty.
And none of them step back.
FORTY-FOUR
LANI
The house isquiet again once the medic leaves.
Not peaceful.
Watching.
Sol remains seated on the sofa, bandage stark white against his side. His skin is pale beneath the blood he lost, but his spine is rigid now, his gaze locked on me with something that hasn’t settled since the moment I spoke.
Kai stands to my right, close enough that I can feel the heat of him without touching. Not moving. Not interrupting.
Koa perches on the arm of the sofa beside Sol, still and grounded, but there’s a tension in his shoulders that wasn’t there before.
Finn leans against the sideboard opposite us, arms folded, controlled as ever?—
—but not detached.
Not anymore.
The words I said haven’t faded.
They’ve settled.
Changed the air.
My body reacts to it before my mind can catch up. The heat under my skin isn’t chaotic now. It’s focused. Heavy. Coiling low and tight, like something waking with purpose instead of panic.
No one speaks.
They’re waiting.
Not for an explanation.
For confirmation.
I take a breath, slow and deliberate, and let my gaze move between them.
Kai first—fire banked but barely contained.
Koa—steady, but watching me like I might still disappear.
Finn—too still, like he’s holding something in place by force alone.
Then Sol.
Bleeding.