Chapter 104

Harper's POV

There’s a desk shoved against the far wall with open notebooks scattered across its surface, a few broken pens lying nearby. Shelves are stacked high with books, some neat, others shoved in sideways like they were thrown there in frustration. His chaos is everywhere. Not messy, exactly, just... unfiltered.

I take a step further in, noticing the scarring on the wooden floor, gouges where furniture was dragged or something else happened entirely. The room doesn’t feel dangerous, but it feels unpredictable, like the space holds the same barely leashed energy that simmers beneath Theo’s skin. Passion and violence, restraint and recklessness, all tangled together.

He leans against the doorframe behind me, arms crossed. “I get bored easily,” he says, voice low, almost distracted. “So I collect things that stop me from burning the world dow