KELVIN

The room is a storm, a chaos of light and shadow and murmurs, but all I could see, no, all I could feel was her. Iris. Clinging to him. Clinging to Darian. The very air trembled around them as if the universe itself were holding its breath.

She was crying. Really crying. Sobbing into him, arms wrapped tight around his brother’s waist. And Darian, my brother, was letting her. He was letting her hold him, let her fear, her anger, her despair flow into him, and he was letting it break him a little.

I’d never seen him like this. Not ever. Since our mother died, Darian had been…...