I lay perfectly still on my bed, counting Cassian's breaths across the room as he slept.

The words from last night kept replaying behind my eyes. You're my mate, Valeria. He'd said it like a confession.

And now it was morning, and nothing had changed.

I catalogued my exits. The door. The window. The emergency ward line three hundred yards past the academy gates. All of them accessible.

All of them impossible.

Because running meant leaving the bond behind, and I'd already tried that last ...