White text.
Clean.
Deliberate.
You can’t guard him forever.
The words don’t feel like a threat.
They feel like a promise.
48
Lark
Location: Same
Time: Minutes Later
My hands are shaking.
Not from fear.
From proximity.
From the fact that I can still see it—
The line where he almost dies.
The exact moment where the system tilts and everything fractures.
They didn’t try to hide it.
They didn’t try to make it clean.
They wanted me to see.
“They weren’t trying to kill him quietly,” I say.
My voice sounds distant.
Like it belongs to someone else.
“They were trying to kill him in front of me.”
Aaron is closer now.
Ronan too.
Both of them watching me like I might disappear if they blink.
“That’s not tactics,” I continue.
“That’s messaging.”
Ronan’s voice is steady. Controlled.
“What are they saying?”
