He cupped her cheeks in his hands. “It’s okay. Your brain is in this heightened state, looking for threats. That’s one of the symptoms. You don’t know me that well, and we’re out in the middle of the woods at night. It’s a scary situation, so your brain has clocked me as a threat. That’s all this is. It’s okay.”

“I don’t know why I’m doing this. I don’t know why this keeps happening.”

“I just told you why this keeps happening. Do you do breathing exercises?”

She tried to slow down her breathing, then shook her head.

“Let me show you one. ‘Four-seven-eight.’ Breathe in for a count of four, hold seven, breathe out eight.”

She tried to do what he said, but was finding it difficult to even count past one. Oh, God.

“It’s okay, I’ll count. Breathe with me slowly. One, two, three, four,” he counted, breathing in as he did. “One, two, three, four, five, six, seven.” He held it. As she wasn’t deep in the spiral yet, she successfully held it, too. “One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.” Long exhale. He repeated the cycle, holding the side of her forearms firmly, and she kept her eyes closed as she did.

On the third cycle, she felt him pulling her close to him. “One, two, three, four.” She was up against him, her face pressing against the skin of his neck. She smelled that cologne combined with his natural scent. “One, two, three, four, five, six, seven.” He let go of her shoulders, wound his hands around her. “One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.” He wound one of his palms down to the small of her back, the other up around her shoulder, and began a gentle rocking motion. Then he repeated the cycle. Once. Twice. She snaked her arms around his back, felt the warmth under his shirt, leaned her head against his chest, listened to his heartbeat, which was going at half the speed and intensity of hers. He repeated the cycle.

And then he screamed.

He let her go, throwing himself against a nearby tree. She turned to see two amber eyes glowing in the light of the flashlight, which was now on the ground. Ampersand moved toward Kaveh, and Cora threw herself between the two of them. “What are you doing?”

“You are threatened.”

“No, it’s not like that! I was having a panic attack; he was helping me.”

“This one has threatened you.”

“No, please, leave him alone!”

“He is the source of your fear.”

Ampersand knew that Kaveh had sparked the panic, but didn’t know the context. She reached up, grabbed him by the forearms, all but yanked him down so his gaze would be redirected to her. “It’s not his fault!” she said. “It’s not like that. It’s not his fault.”