“Mommy?” Leo mumbled, his little voice muffled against my shoulder. “You’re squeezing.”

“I know, baby,” I whispered, burying my face in his soft hair. “I just missed you.”

He smelled like baby soap and the sweet apples he had eaten at lunch.

He was safe.

For now, he was safe.

Marlene stood up and walked over, placing a gentle hand on my shoulder.

“The guards just closed the metal shutters on the windows,” she said quietly. “Nora, what is happening?”

“The people from our past,” I said, keeping my voice low so Leo wouldn’t hear. “They found us.”

Marlene’s grip on my shoulder tightened.

She had protected me in the freezing isolation of Copper Harbor when I had nothing.

She knew the depth of my fear.

“We will protect him,” Marlene said, her voice fierce and steady. “Damon will protect him.”

I looked at the doorway.

Damon was standing there, watching us.

His dark eyes were filled with a painful intensity as he looked at our son.

He looked like a man who was carrying the weight of a dozen lifetimes on his shoulders.