The glass reflects the rising sun, turning her into a silhouette edged in gold.
The sky swallows us whole.
I close my eyes.
Not because I’m afraid.
Because for the first time in my life, there’s something worth keeping my eyes closed for—an image I don’t want the war to overwrite.
Her heart may be shattering right now.
But her spine stays straight.
And gods help the galaxy—I’m going to make sure mine does too.
CHAPTER 24
SABLE
The city exhales.
It doesn’t happen all at once. It’s gradual—like a clenched fist loosening finger by finger. Sirens thin out. Patrols stop double-looping my block. People stop whispering when they think no one’s listening. The neon still flickers, the streets still smell like rain and oil and ambition, but theedgedulls. Just enough.
A couple of weeks pass.
Long enough for the ash to wash out of my hair. Long enough for the scorch marks on the fortress to become just another scar in Novaria’s long, ugly history. Long enough for the Nine’s influence to start collapsing in public, spectacular ways.
I watch it happen from my salon chair between clients.
Screens in the corner cycle through headlines while I’m trimming a banker’s undercut.
ALLIANCE SEIZES ASSETS IN MULTI-SYSTEM RAID.
KEY FIGURES OF THE NINE IN CUSTODY.
SHELL CORPORATIONS EXPOSED—MARKETS REEL.
Every time one scrolls by, my stomach does a weird little flip. Relief. Satisfaction. Something darker underneath.
I don’t comment. Neither do my clients. But everyone’s listening harder than they pretend.
Jacey does comment.
“Oh my god,” she says, leaning over my shoulder while I blend a fade. “Tell me you see this. Tell me you’re seeing this.”
“I see it,” I mutter.
She squints at me. “You look… weird.”
“I always look weird.”
“No,” she says slowly. “You look like you’re waiting for something to jump out of a closet and yell ‘gotcha.’”
I snip a little harder than necessary. “Trauma does that.”
“Uh-huh,” she says. “And here I thought it was just because you’re sleeping with a war god and he left.”
I freeze.
