The compound spent the remainder of that day tending wounds, counting losses that had thankfully stayed lower than the chaos initially suggested, and preparing for a journey none of us had anticipated needing to make.
Two dead, Priya reported grimly that evening, exhaustion and grief carved into every line of her face. Neither of them senior members, but still ours, still people who trusted us enough to stand and fight when everything went wrong.
Ronan absorbed the news with the same heavy weight I had watched him carry after Otis's death, guilt and responsibility settling over him in a way I understood now was simply part of who he was, not something I could talk him out of feeling regardless of how the logic actually settled.
We'll grieve properly once Wren's safe, he said finally, vo
