SILAS POV
I didn’t sleep.
Not even for a second.
I lay on the sofa staring at the ceiling while the house settled around me, listening to the quiet rhythm of a place that wasn’t mine and somehow already was. Every sound felt amplified: the soft hum of the fridge, the distant creak of wood contracting, the faint shift of air when Helena moved upstairs. I didn’t close my eyes because every time I did, Seiryu surged closer to the surface, restless and alert, convinced that if I let my guard down for even a heartbeat, something would take this away from us again.
I wasn’t risking it.
When the light outside the windows shifted from black to that pale, early gray, I gave up on pretending. I rose quietly, moving through the house on bare feet, careful with every step. This wasn’t a den. This
