"All right," she said at last. "You get fifteen minutes. Then we move."
Veer's eye narrowed. "Half an hour."
"Twenty," she countered.
A rough sound, almost a laugh, scraped out of him. "Fine. Twenty."
Kaya settled in that thin space between them, one hand resting near Cutie's shoulder, the other flat on cold rock, counting breaths and minutes while the wind slid over the ridge and the sky slowly, slowly began to lighten.
kaya is human while others are beastmen also dont mention same scene liie she ahd already talked about her eyes make the next scene of how injured kaya was too ans now 5gat shw got time to breath she felt all the pain rushibg to her
Kaya sat very still on the cold rock and let it all catch up.
For the first few seconds after landing, she'd been fine. Functional. Checking Cutie, watching Veer, counting the minutes. But now that her body understood they'd stopped—really stopped—everything she'd shoved down during the fight came rushing back at once.
