**DEREK POV**
The call ends too cleanly.
No hesitation. No soft goodbye. Just silence, abrupt and final, like she cut the line the second she decided she had taken enough from it. I stare at the phone in my hand for a long moment after it goes dark, listening to the echo of her voice in my head, measuring every word she did not say.
Lila sounded steady.
Too steady.
That alone is wrong.
The bond is quiet. Completely still. Not dulled. Not distant. Silent, like a held breath that never releases. I have lived with that bond long enough to know the difference. Silence like this is not peace. It is absence.
And absence is dangerous.
I set the phone down slowly on the counter. The kitchen feels smaller than it did a minute ago. The mug I poured earlier sits untouched near the sink, steam
