-Vaughn Blackmore:
The fire keeps burning steadily in front of us, crackling softly as the meat finishes cooking, the smell hanging heavy in the cold air. Everyone eats in scattered silence now, the earlier noise dying down into something slower, more tired.
I sit with my food in my hands, but I barely taste it at first.
Because I can still feel it.
That stare.
I don't even need to look to know it's there.
But I do anyway.
Ryland is still watching me.
Across the fire, half-lit by the shifting flames, his posture is relaxed like always—like nothing around him requires effort. But his eyes are not relaxed. They're fixed. Focused. Like I'm the only thing in the entire clearing that matters right now.
And that's what makes it worse.
I drag my gaze away quickly.
Because it doesn't make sense.
None of this does.
And then I feel it again.
Not just him.
Kieran.
