And for the first time since I stormed these gates, I do.
CHAPTER 30
ROXY
The compound unravels behind us like a parade falling apart after the band leaves.
Guards shout orders no one obeys. Trucks rumble. Drones buzz overhead like nervous hornets. Someone’s crying near the southeast gate—sharp, wet sobs that sound like a plug’s been pulled on their whole world.
I don’t look back.
Not even once.
Vrok walks beside me. Not touching. Not speaking. Just… there.
His steps are uneven. Favoring the left leg. Shoulders stiff, jaw locked, eyes forward like he’s still waiting for the trap to spring.
He’s free. But not.
Not yet.
The dirt road stretches ahead, winding back toward the perimeter. The same one he came tearing in on like a human wrecking ball. Now it’s just a path between two lives. One we nearly died in. One we still don’t know how to live in.
I stop at the edge of the ridge.
Hooves ships glint in the sky above, sluggish and uncertain, like predators being called home mid-feast. One by one, they lift off—leaving scorch marks and churned earth behind.
Kluzderfuvv peeks through the horizon haze. Smoke still curls from a collapsed water tower, and one of the wind vanes leans at a weird angle like it gave up halfway through a turn. But it’s still there.
Still breathing.
Behind me, I hear Vrok inhale like he’s about to say something.
I turn first.
“Don’t you fucking dare.”
His mouth opens. Closes. Opens again. “What?—”
“Youdon’tget to play the noble, brooding soldier right now,” I cut in, stepping closer. “You don’t get to stare stoically into the middle distance and pretend this wasn’t the dumbest shit I’ve ever seen you pull.”
He blinks, caught off guard. “Roxy?—”
“No. Youleft.”
“I had to.”
“No, youchoseto.”
He flinches at that. Not visibly. Not to someone who doesn’t know him. But I do. I see it in the tightness of his throat. The slight angle of his shoulders. He looks down.
“I couldn’t watch her hurt you,” he says finally.
“That wasn’t your choice.”
“She would’ve gutted you. On screen. In front of everyone.”
“So you thought dyingby yourselfwould fix that?”
