Still.
Something tightens in my chest, and I realize it’s the same thing I felt last night on that rooftop.
Possibility.
Not certainty. Not even comfort.
Butpossibility.
Jennings exhales beside me. “I hate how good he is at this.”
I glance at her.
She shrugs. “I wanted to fire him six times this semester. But then he turns a fire drill into a lesson about teamwork and suddenly the whole class stops biting each other.”
I smile. Just barely.
“Think he’s got a future here?”
She eyes me.
“He’s already got one. It just depends who’s brave enough to let him keep it.”
Ben falls asleep earlythat night, still wearing part of his frosting costume. I carry him to bed, tuck him in, and kiss his forehead without waking him.
In the doorway, I linger.
My heart’s a mess of threads and tangled lines, but I know this:
The children don’t lie.
They don’tpretendto love someone. They don’t perform admiration.
Theyfeelit. Instinctively. Clearly.
And theyknow.
They know who’s safe.
Who’s good.
Whobelongs.
And no matter how hard I try to deny it—they see Jav.
Maybe it’s time I start seeing him too.
CHAPTER 26
JAV
The buzz in the little comm-cube is quiet enough that I can hear the low hum of the transformer above. Garkin's face appears in the holo-screen, a flicker of blue light dancing across his scars. The scent of burnt ozone lingers in the room from my armor’s systems testing earlier — a faint but persistent reminder of what I still am underneath the classroom persona.
“Kuraken,” Garkin says, voice low. “We’ve got a situation.”
I lean back on the metal bench, flexing a hand into a fist. I don’t wear gloves because I need skin, I need friction, I need to remember what it means to grip something andholdit.
The holo-screen shows a grid: cell location, transit tunnels, a red blip moving. “Expired asset,” Garkin continues. “Ex-Redscale accountant. Name: Talo Verin. Last seen in transit to one of our holdings. Rival bridged the smuggler tunnels. They have him. They’re threatening open war.”
