CHAPTER 72: THE CHANNEL
Selene's POV
Kira had a theory about fear.
Not the kind you felt in a fight—she had approximately seventeen theories about that kind, most of them involving footwork and the angle of your shoulders—but the kind that lived underneath everything else. The background fear. The one that didn't spike and then pass but simply sat, constant and low, coloring everything it touched.
The kind you stopped noticing because it had become part of the landscape.
We were on the training grounds before sunrise, the world still quiet enough that every sound seemed to travel farther than it should. Frost clung to the edges of the practice field. My breath drifted into the cold air in pale clouds before disappearing. Somewhere beyond the walls, birds had only just begun to wake, their calls soft enough to be swallowed by the morning.
Kira stood opposite me with her usual impossible steadiness.
Even standing still, she looked prepared to move.
