CHAPTER 21: THE FIRST NIGHT
The safe house is quiet after everyone leaves. Rosa disappears to handle operational details. Marco takes security positions outside. The city hums beyond the windows—distant, indifferent, continuing with its life while theirs has just fundamentally shifted. Elara and Dante are alone for the first time since everything stopped being theoretical. "You should rest," Dante says. It's what a responsible person would say. It's not what either of them wants. "I'm not tired," Elara says. She's sitting on the couch, still wearing the clothes she arrived in—practical, anonymous, unmarked by the penthouse or the war or the twelve days of uncertainty. "I feel like I've been asleep for four years. I don't think I can sleep anymore." Dante sits next to her. Not touching. But close enough that she
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