NEVA POV
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We left before dawn.
Ziko's itinerary had accounted for every variable except the specific quality of the morning itself — the way Ashveil looked in the last dark before sunrise, the compound gate closing behind a convoy larger than anything I'd seen assemble in all the months I'd lived here.
Ren stayed behind with Arden and the compound-hold team, the most secure configuration they'd ever run, though I noticed Ziko checking his comm three times before we'd even cleared the gate, unable to fully release the specific anxiety of leaving her even in the safest possible hands.
"She'll be fine," I told him.
"I know," he said. "I'm allowed to check anyway."
"You're allowed," I agreed.
Ryke drove. I sat behind him, my hands at his waist, the ring I'd chosen to wear — Elara's
