Kianna's PoV:
I stared at the calendar on my phone, the date glaring back at me like an accusation: It was 18th. Four days more to go. Just four days until the 22nd—until I turned nineteen and the fated-mate bond with Maddox locked into place like a cage door slamming shut.
It had crept up so fast like a blink in the chaos of the past weeks. The circus lights, the amusement park rides, the chase that still haunted my dreams—it all blurred together, making time feel like it was slipping through my fingers.
The dorm was quiet this afternoon, Lesley was out at her part-time job at the campus bookstore, leaving me alone with the hum of the heater and the faint patter of snow against the window.
Winter had fully arrived, blanketing the world in white, but inside my chest, everything felt like a storm.
