BODIEI don’t sleep much that night.

Not because of patrol rotations or unfinished reports or the thousand small responsibilities that come with holding a merged pack together. Those things have never kept me awake before. I’ve learned how to rest with one eye open, how to let exhaustion dull into something manageable.

This is different.

This is Helda.

I lie on my back, staring at the stone ceiling of my quarters, replaying the moment her voice softened when she said that makes two of us. ...