Chapter 179

SEBASTIAN

“I’m here,” I said again, slower this time, grounding each word like an anchor. “You’re safe. You’re with me.”

Dahlia didn’t seem to hear it.

Her body trembled violently against mine, breath coming in sharp, uneven bursts. Her hands fisted in my jacket like I was the only solid thing left in a world that had suddenly lost gravity.

“I thought…” she gasped, then shook her head hard. “I thought he was going to kill me. I really did. Sebastian, I swear, I tried to run. I didn’t even know where I was running to; I just…”

“Hey,” I murmured, tightening my arms around her without trapping her. “Slow down. Breathe with me.”

She didn’t.

Words poured out of her in a rush, tangled and frantic, as if silence itself terrified her.

“He followed me,” she said. “I felt it first, you know? That feeling when your skin starts screaming before your brain catches up. I kept telling myself I was imagining it. That I was paranoid. But then I heard f