Chapter 139

Nora

I made it three steps into the room before my legs stopped working.

Not collapse—I didn't allow myself that. Just a sudden, mechanical halt, like a clock whose gears had seized. I stood there in the middle of the floor, hands clenched at my sides, while my heart hammered against my ribs hard enough to bruise.

*Breathe. Just breathe.*

But breathing meant inhaling the scent I'd carried back fro