Piper's POV
The words about the betrothal had barely left my lips when it was as if all the air was violently sucked out of the room, replaced by a substance ten times heavier. My own breath hitched, trapped in my throat.
I watched their faces. Keith's icy calm broke, replaced by a look that was raw and deadly. Kieran's bored look sharpened into pure, cold hatred. And Kayden… his silence felt like a storm was about to break, a heavy pressure building behind his eyes. The air itself seemed to warp around them, thick with an energy that made the fine hairs on my arms stand up. It was the first time in my entire, privileged, protected life that I felt a chill of true, primal fear—the instinct that screams run away immediately.
