“You could have.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you?”
I stop walking.Because this is the moment.Because everything after depends on the truth I give her right in this moment.
“Because containment failed,” I say.“And I don’t repeat broken strategies.”
She studies me.“That’s not personal.”
“No,” I admit.“But it’s notnotpersonal.”
She snorts softly.“Fair.”
We stop near the fence and the desert wind cuts through the heat.“They’re going to test you again,” she says.
“I know.”
“And they’ll aim at perception, not bodies.”
“I know,” I repeat.
She meets my gaze.“Then don’t retreat when it gets ugly.”
“I won’t,” I say.
“Don’t make me the reason everything falls apart, Savage,” she adds.
“I won’t,” I repeat.“I’ll make you the reason everything stays standing.”
That earns a slow smile.
****
An hour later, Steelbrings confirmation.One of the shell accounts froze.Not by accident.By pressure.
“It’s working,” he says.
“Yes,” I reply.“Which means they’ll respond.”
I spend hours working in my offices after he leaves.Men come and go, bringing information, food, drinks.I work into the dark hours of the night until my back aches and my eyes blur.
I rise from my seat and my feet take me toward her without thought.I don’t stand outside Raven’s door.I don’t need to.She’s not something I guard from the dark anymore.She’s part of how I decide where to point the light.
This war didn’t begin because she came back.It began because I stopped pretending I could lead without choosing.And now that I’ve chosen?There are no more edges.
Only direction.
