She didn’t lecture me. Didn’t thank me. Didn’t make promises.
She just said, “You can keep running alone, or you can run with us.”
I didn’t find out until later that she was talking about the Accord.
I laughed then, because the idea of belonging anywhere felt like a bad joke, a weakness I’d learned to carve out of myself years ago.
Then I looked into her eyes and saw that she wasn’t joking at all.
She meant it.
So I stopped laughing.
And for the first time in my life, I chose to stop running.
I watched her sleep for some time. I don’t know how long I sat there for, but the others joined me a short while later.
“She still out?” Griff asked as he walked into the med bay.
“Yeah,” I said. “She’s still sleeping pretty hard.”
Relief crossed his face before he could stop it, a crack in the stone armor he wore so well.
Eamon exhaled behind him, the sound barely audible but unmistakable. “Good.”
Bishop stepped in just enough to glance at her face, then at me.
“We should talk,” he said quietly.
Elias didn’t waste time with ceremony. He nodded once. “Agreed.”
We left the med bay, the door closing softly behind us. The planning room down the hall smelled faintly of smoke and gun oil. There were five chairs, a scarred table, and a chalkboard on one of walls.
Griff sat first, elbows on his knees, hands clasped, jaw tight enough to crack teeth. Eamon stayed standing near the wall. Bishop folded himself into a chair with the controlled grace of someone who never forgot his manners, even at the end of the world. Elias took the head of the table without asking.
I leaned against the wall, arms crossed, watching them all.
Elias spoke first. “The Watch is crumbling.”
“No shit,” Griff muttered.
Eamon’s voice was calm. “How many have left so far?”
“Among those that survived the battle, there’s at least six confirmed,” Bishop said. “Then there’s Dane, Mira, and Callan. There may be others who slipped out separately. Halden’s people are still counting the dead.”
I pushed off the wall, a humorless smile tugging at my mouth. “You’re all thinking it. Just say it.”
Elias met my gaze, steady and sharp. “You disappear better than the rest of us. Why don’t you try to find Dane and see what he’s up to.”
I nodded once. “I’ll find them.”
Griff started to stand. “I’m coming?—”
“No,” Elias said, his voice forceful.
Griff froze, eyes flashing.
Elias didn’t back down. “You stay with Tamsin at all times.”
