***JORDAN***

I sat on a smooth stone beside the stream, letting the current tug my mind along. It flowed without rush, as if each moment mattered just enough. Smoke clung to my palms, lingering from earlier. The cold from that campfire night stayed deep beneath my bones. Faces popped up inside my skull — Elliot’s smirk, that kid-wolf grabbing my watch, the commander dropping dead. Bits of the border returned slow — the surprise attack, sharp claws tearing the air, how everything shrank ...