Evaline:
"Professor Kieran?"
His name slipped through my lips before I could stop it, trembling with confusion and fear. I repeated it again, softer this time, like maybe saying it twice would make the weight of River's words settle differently.
And as if the sound of his name was an invocation, he appeared.
The door opened with the faintest creak, and there he was.
Kieran.
He didn't stride in or rush forward - no, he lingered just inside the threshold, his tall frame half-shadowed by the doorway. His eyes, that same impossible shade of green with golden flickers I had just seen in my son's, were locked on me with such intensity that my lungs forgot how to work.
He had been there, right outside the door. Listening. Waiting.
A shiver raced through me as I realized he must have heard every word between River and me. And now… now he was here to claim what he hadn't yet spoken aloud.
