HELENA POV
* Gravity - Sara Bareilles*
Garrett didn’t even knock.
The door slammed open hard enough to rattle the glass in the cabinets, the sound sharp and violent in a room already split open by panic. He filled the doorway for half a second, eyes already glazed with the faint silver sheen of an active mindlink, jaw tight, shoulders set like he was bracing for impact.
Amaranta was right behind him.
She didn’t hesitate. Didn’t ask. Didn’t look at me.
She crossed the room in three long strides and dropped to her knees beside my mother, skirts pooling around her like she hadn’t even registered them. The calm she usually wore like armor was gone. In its place was something sharper, colder — focus honed to a blade.
“Move your hands, Helena,” she said.
Not unkind.
Not impatient.
But
