Chapter 40 — The Aftermath Has Teeth
The city did not sleep that night.
Neither did Amara.
From the window of the upper residence—temporary, heavily guarded, and suffocatingly quiet—she watched emergency lights bleed through the streets like open wounds. Sirens echoed in waves, rising and falling as if the city itself were breathing unevenly, struggling to recover from the shock she had detonated at its core.
She should have felt victorious.
She felt hollow.
Behind her, the room was dim, lit only by a single lamp and the faint glow of a security panel. Every surface was clean, neutral, impersonal. Designed for containment, not comfort.
A place to put people the Council didn’t know what to do with yet.
Amara folded her arms tightly around herself, suddenly aware of how cold she was
