I didn’t make it far.

I barely reached the gate before I heard Kross shout my name again, sharp and urgent, breaking through the noise in my head like it always did when it came from him. I kept walking anyway because stopping felt like weakness, and I had spent too many years teaching myself how not to stop for him.

“Sade.”

I clenched my jaw and kept moving, my heels clicking too loud against the pavement, my chest tight, my vision blurry, and then his hand wrapped around my wrist, ...