He looks exactly the same.
Standing there like nothing has shifted. Like the world hasn’t just been torn open. Like he hasn’t already failed.
Something in my chest twists, then it snaps.
I close the distance in seconds, my hand fisting in his shirt and dragging him forward as my fist drives into his jaw, the impact cracking through my arm as his head snaps to the side.
“You were meant to keep her safe!”
The words tear out of me, rough, violent, dragged from somewhere deeper than control.
I don’t stop.
I hit him again, harder, driving him back into the frame of the door, the force of it jolting through both of us as my grip tightens.
“I trusted you.”
He stumbles, catches himself, but he doesn’t swing back. Doesn’t even lift his hands. And that makes it worse.
I shove him again, my forearm pressing into his chest, pinning him back, forcing him to take it.
“And you let someone walk in here and take her.”
Hands are on me.
Christian first. Then Lucian.
They grab my shoulders, my arms, trying to pull me back, but I don’t move with it at first, my grip still locked in Killian’s shirt,my body leaning forward like I can force the answer out of him if I push hard enough.
“You were here,” I snap, my voice dropping, sharper now. “You were supposed to be here.”
“Elijah—” Christian cuts in.
I wrench against his hold, my chest rising harder, the control I had in the car already gone.
“I left her with you.”
That lands heavier than anything else. For a second, Killian doesn’t move. Doesn’t defend himself. Doesn’t argue. He just looks at me, jaw tight, something dark sitting behind his eyes.
“I know.”
That’s it.
No excuse.
No justification.
Just... “I know.”
Something in me shifts again, more violent for it, because that isn’t enough, it’s nowhere near enough, and I step forward again, forcing against Christian’s grip just enough to close the space.
“That’s not an answer.”
My voice drops lower, tighter.
“That doesn’t fix anything.”
Behind him, Emma is already there, hands on him, her voice tight and breaking as she checks him, while Evelyn stands just behind her, pale, shaken, her eyes moving between all of us like she’s watching something she can’t stop.
