The common room hadn’t changed; it was just as dull as it had been yesterday. That was the first thing Kris noticed as she stepped inside with Aaron at her side: how deceptively normal it all looked. The metal table was still bolted to the floor. The television was humming softly with muted news footage. The hum of the tower itself continued, steady and watchful, like a living thing that never slept, but everything else had changed.
She felt it in her skin. The aftereffects of the past week clung to her, heat beneath the surface, a faint pulse behind her eyes, the lingering echo of being seen. Win’s voice still threaded through her thoughts, quiet and approving. The memory of kneeling, of the way praise had settled into her bones, made her swallow hard.
Aaron’s hand brushed the small of
