Third Person POV
Kai had already turned toward the cottage door.
His hand was reaching for Helen, his mind already past the soldiers and the swords and Zico's voice and all of it. Already inside, already done with this. But the next words stopped him before his fingers could find her.
"Kaelen, at least think about the Luna health."
He went still.
Not the controlled stillness from before. Something different. Something that happened lower, somewhere past the chest, past everything he had been managing carefully since he stepped outside and found them all there waiting.
These words did not land the same way the others had. These words carried something underneath them that the others did not.
His hand dropped to his side.
He turned back slowly.
"What about my mother?"
His voice came out low and quiet. The anger that had been sitting in it before was gone. What replaced it was harder to name.
Behind him, Helen stood very still.
