Luara noticed the difference wasn't in what Kade said, but in the way he remained silent when he knew any word could be interpreted as strategy instead of truth, and this containment, which before she would've read as political calculation, now presented itself as conscious choice of someone who finally understood leadership wasn't sustained just by imposition, but by the capacity to bear one's own vulnerability without trying to control it.

He was beside her, close enough for his body ...