Layla’s POV
Chloe didn’t let go of me for a long time.
We stood there in the middle of the fortress hallway, surrounded by noise and engines and strangers, but it felt like none of that mattered. It was just us. Like every bad night we’d survived together back home. Like we were kids again hiding from the world.
“I can’t believe you’re really here,” I said, my voice shaking.
She pulled back just enough to look at me. “You think I wouldn’t come? You disappear like that, I was losing my mind.”
I laughed, then cried, then laughed again. “I’m sorry. I should’ve told you something. Anything.”
She grabbed my hands. “Later. First—you okay?”
That question hit harder than I expected.
I nodded. Then shook my head. “I don’t even know how to answer that.”
She sighed. “Figures.”
We went into
