FOR THE NEXT FEW DAYS, Seris didn’t come out. Her meals were left outside her door, always warm, untouched, and quietly taken back. When hunger gnawed at her, she ignored it. When sleep came, it was haunted and brief.
Sometimes she would wake with tears on her cheeks.
The door remained shut.
The curtains are drawn.
The sunlight that managed to sneak through painted faint stripes across the floor, but she barely noticed.
Outside, she could sometimes hear the others—the pack members, also, Cassian’s quiet footsteps pacing, the occasional knock. But Cassian never forced her to come out or enter her room. He never knocked more than once at the door.
Seris could feel his presence, but she never answered. Never moved. But she could feel he simply sat outside her room some nights, silen
