(Theron)
She walks out of the building on her own feet.
I stay close enough that my arm is at her back without quite holding her, giving her the choice, and she takes three steps into the night air and then stops and breathes — long, deliberate, the breath of someone who has been underground and is recalibrating to the world above it. I watch her do it and don't rush it.
The holding's outer grounds are controlled now. Enforcers at the perimeter, the remaining rogues dealt with or dispersed. Joss is near the north wall with Lara, who is sitting on the ground with a blanket around her shoulders and her face in her hands and Joss standing beside her with the particular quality of someone who doesn't do comfort easily but is trying.
Kaelen sees her sister.
Something moves through her face
