Chapter 36. Defend

Tristan

I searched her gaze for anything that would tell me she was okay but her silence was enough to tell me she wasn't.

Was she even listening?

I couldn't forget the sudden glaze in her eyes right before I'd rushed in or the way she was near hyperventilating. The panic that gripped me at that moment was one I couldn't define.

Now, the haze was gone, yet she looked at me with a gaze I couldn't decipher. I couldn't stand the thought of her cycling through bad memories, hurting herself in the process. It took everything in me to not shake her if I wasn't afraid that it would do more harm than good.

I didn't know what was more unbelievable, the things I'd heard or how fast I'd come here. I'd arrived only less than a minute ago after dealing with business at the border when the nearby guards told me that they had come here. I'd rushed here in the nick of time to know enough of why they came…and her.

I swallowed thickly, trying to control my