“I’ll make sure she gets back what was taken-” His voice had gone quiet, almost conversational, like he was working through a thought. Then his eyes widened slightly, focusing on her like he’d forgotten she was listening. He squeezed them shut, face contorting. When they opened again, they held something raw and exposed.

Juniper’s fingers found the wall behind her, pressing flat against the cool surface. Her weight shifted, one ankle crossing behind the other as if she could make herself smaller. The fluorescent lights cast strange shadows across his face as he paced, highlighting the tension in his jaw, the way his hands clenched and unclenched with each turn.

Something in her chest seemed to collapse inward - not into understanding but into something else, something without shape or name. Those appointments, the sudden exits. The festival. His device lighting up. The way his shoulders would change when certain calls came through. All these fragments swirling in her mind, refusing to hold still long enough to examine.

She opened her mouth, then closed it. Whatever words might help, she didn’t have them.