ANDREI
I didn’t hear the door open.
I didn’t even look up when footsteps crossed the room and stopped just short of the hearth. I sat with my elbows on my knees, head in my hands, trying to breathe past the hollow ache in my chest that had been growing since morning.
“You need to come with me,” Damon said quietly.
I looked up. He stood in the doorway, unreadable as ever, tension coiled through his frame like a live wire.
“What is it?” I asked, my voice hoarse from a sleepless night.
“Just… come.”
There was something in his tone. Not urgency. Not command. But something final.
I stood without questioning him.
He didn’t speak again as we walked, only led me through the winding halls of the packhouse and out toward the far side of the estate, where the trees grew closer and the shado
