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“If they are, then they’re experiencing it, too.”

“Experiencing what?”

“The parts that make everything worth it.”

***

It was the first night on the surface that Khalani slept without nightmares tearing her apart. She held Winnie’s hand the whole time, the only thing keeping her together.

In the morning, Ari entered the room with a pale look of regret and told Khalani that she needed to return to her cleaning duties.

She protested, wanting to stay longer but Winnie squeezed her hand.

“Go, dear,” Winnie insisted, her voice tired. “I’ll be right here.”

Over the next couple of days, Khalani washed clothes with Serene and visited Winnie each afternoon. Ari seemed pleasantly surprised by Winnie’s progress, but she still insisted Winnie needed another day or two before she could move around more freely.

Takeshi remained elusive, rarely seen during the day, not joining them for meals, and entering the house only when the moon was high in the sky. He would shower and then sleep on the living room floor without complaint.

Takeshi didn’t look at her, much less speak to her. He’d reverted to being cold and distant, treating her as he once did in Braderhelm.

One afternoon, Khalani ventured near the training area. The trainees avoided her as if she were covered in poisonous spikes.She noticed the nervous glances darting to Takeshi, like they feared even looking at her would earn them a one-way ticket to hell.

When she walked by, Takeshi’s glare pierced her, sharper than the blade he kept in his boots. But he swiftly returned to instructing the trainees with Patreus, his voice echoing across the field with a hard, biting edge.

But the first change came the following night when Takeshi joined them in the meal hall, something he hadn’t done in days.

His black hair was tousled, and beads of sweat clung to his face.

Her eyes caught on the protruding veins in his forearms as he drank a glass of water, and she caught the hard bob of his throat as he swallowed.

It was truly unfair how someone like him could look even more attractive while sweaty and disheveled. After an intense workout, her lungs rattled like she was on the verge of death, and her hair frizzed up like she enjoyed cuddling with an electric fence in her free time.

But beneath that allure, a chaotic energy seeped from him that made everyone uneasy as he ate his meal in silence.

“You good, man? We haven’t seen you around lately,” Adan asked, breaking the resounding quiet.

“I’m fine.” Takeshi barely glanced up, eating from his bowl like it was his last meal. Like he wanted to escape as quickly as possible.

“How’s the training going?” Derek questioned.

“Fine.”

“And their warriors?”

“Fine.”

“What’s Patreus like?” Serene chimed in. “Is he…fine?”

“Yes.”

Serene shook her head in exasperation, and Derek chuckled.

Khalani, meanwhile, fiddled with her spoon, pushing around the beans like they might magically gain sentience.

Suddenly, a deafening CRACK echoed through the hall, as if God Himself slammed a fist into the earth.

Khalani gasped, shooting to her feet as Serene, Derek, and Adan did the same, holding on to each other. Everyone else in the room remained seated, staring at the four of them like they’d finally lost their minds.