BODIEThe moment my voice leaves my mouth, the world fractures.

“Lana.”

It isn’t loud. It isn’t dramatic. It’s barely more than breath and disbelief colliding in my throat. But it lands like a blade dropped into still water, cutting straight through the clearing.

Her name.

Her eyes widen.

Just a fraction. Just enough.

And in that single, devastating reaction, hope and denial both die at once.

The woman, no, Lana, stills like she’s been struck. The line of her spine tightens, ...