Locke
She’s so small in the middle of the bed.
Right where we left her after Vaelor brought her food. An hour ago. Maybe two. I’ve lost track.
I stand in the doorway and count her breaths. In and out. Steady.
Good. That’s good.
She’s here. She’s alive. We got her back.
It doesn’t feel like enough.
I cross to the bed. Sit on the edge carefully. The mattress barely dips.
Her face is turned toward the window, late afternoon light coming through. Her hair spreads across the pillow and I can see the bruising on her shoulder even through the shirt she’s wearing. The dark purple bleeding down her arm.
Two weeks with a dislocated shoulder.
I keep turning that over. Trying to make it make sense.
It doesn’t.
I hear footsteps behind me. I don’t turn.
“How is she?” Beckett.
“Still asleep.”
“Good.”
He doesn’t leave. Just stands there. After a minute Kyron shows up beside him. Then the rest of them. Vaelor is last, wiping his hands on a towel like he’s been scrubbing something. Whatever it was probably didn’t need scrubbing.
We’re all here. All of us staring at her like lovesick idiots.
“We need to talk,” Beckett says.
I look at Nova. At the way her hand curls against her chest.
“I know.”
Nobody moves because none of us want to leave her.
“Downstairs,” Rane says quietly. “I don’t want to wake her.”
We end up in the kitchen. It’s dark outside now. Later than I thought. The clock on the wall says just after eight.
Kyron leans against the counter. Beckett moves to stand beside him, close enough their shoulders almost touch. Trey’s near the door.
Nobody sits.
Rane and Vaelor end up on either side of me.
The silence stretches.
Then Kyron breaks it.
“It’s different.”
We all look at him.
“The bond.” He’s staring at the floor. “It feels different. Stronger.”
“Yeah.” Beckett’s voice is flat. “I noticed.”
Trey shifts. “I thought it was just… relief. Having her back.”
“It’s not relief,” Kyron says.
I look at him and he meets my eyes. He’s not wrong.
Nobody argues.
I feel it too. Since the facility. Since we walked into that room and saw her in the chair. Something changed. I don’t know what.
It should feel good.
It doesn’t.
“What did we actually see in there?” Rane asks.
“Light,” Beckett says. “From her. Not the mark.”
“Wings,” Trey adds. “Made of light. They—” He looks at me. “You saw what they did to the air.”
“I saw.”
Kyron’s jaw tightens. “She was shifting. Into her phoenix. But it kept flickering. Like it couldn’t hold.”
“There was something else too,” Beckett says. His voice is careful. “Between forms. I don’t know what it was.”
“The wings,” Trey adds. “Weren’t always phoenix wings.”
Vaelor makes a sound. Low. Almost a growl.
“And Laith looked surprised,” I say.
Silence.
“We don’t know what it means,” Beckett says finally.
“No.” I push off the counter. “We don’t.”
“Laith does,” Rane says.
“And he’s not talking.”
Trey’s hands curl into fists. Kyron notices. Shifts slightly closer without looking at him.
“We could make him,” Trey says.
“We could try.” I look at him. “But he’s been down there six days. You really think he’s breaking now?”
Somebody curses.
Because we all know he won’t.
“So what do we do?” Rane asks.
I don’t have an answer. We’re standing in the kitchen and Nova is asleep upstairs. Laith is in the bunker and we still don’t know what they did to her.
Or why.
We’re stuck.
“We talk to him,” I say finally. “Tomorrow morning.”
“And if he still won’t—”
“Then we make him understand what happens if he doesn’t.”
Kyron looks at me. His eyes sharpen. The corner of his mouth twitches.
“Nova should be there,” Trey says.
We all turn to look at him.
“If she wants to be,” he adds. “It’s her choice. But she should have the option.”
Rane nods. “He’s right.”
“She’ll want to be there,” Beckett says quietly.
“Then we wait until she’s ready,” Vaelor says. “Tomorrow. We do this together.”
I look around the room. At all of them. Beckett and Kyron side by side. Rane and Vaelor flanking me. Trey near the door but not leaving.
“Tomorrow,” I say.
Nobody argues.
Nobody says anything else.
Vaelor shifts first. “I’m gonna go check on her.”
He’s already heading for the stairs when Trey speaks.
“I’ll come with you.”
Vaelor stops. Looks back. Nods once.
They leave together.