A beat. He didn't buy it. He also didn't push, the way he didn't push when pushing would cost more than waiting.
I pulled back before his patience pried it out of me. "We should find the way up."
He looked at me for a beat longer than the sentence needed. Then he let it go, the way he let things go when he knew pushing would cost more than waiting.
We moved low and quiet through the dead space, me steering by the strip of light, Vane steering by whatever his eyes pulled out of the dark that mine couldn't. No comms. No sound but water dripping somewhere and the building settling its old bones.
Fenn and Gregor were somewhere above us. Mid-level. If the flood hadn't reached them, they wouldn't know we were missing until extraction. If it had, they'd be doing exactly what we were doing. Sw
