Kalilah POV
It was crazy to think how strong our bond was getting.
I felt him before he even stepped into a room now. Like a pull in my chest. Steady. Sure. Unmistakable.
It didn’t make any sense how quickly it had deepened—how safe I felt with him, how easy it was to lean into something I spent so long resisting. But maybe that was the nature of real bonds. They didn’t follow rules or timelines. They just… were.
Sometimes he wouldn’t even say a word. Just brush his hand against mine or sit beside me quietly, and I’d feel more seen than I ever had before.
He didn’t treat me like I was fragile. He didn’t tiptoe around the things I’d lost. He saw me as I was now—blind, bruised, healing—and he still looked at me like I was whole.
Like I was worth loving.
And for the first time in a lon
