NEVA POV
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Mitch's alert cut through breakfast with the specific urgency that had become, across this story's long arc, a sound my body responded to before my mind fully caught up.
"They've resurfaced," he said, phone already in hand, his chair scraping back before he'd finished the sentence. "The two original fugitives. Council surveillance picked them up an hour ago, two territories south, meeting with someone we haven't identified yet."
Ren, in her booster seat, looked up at the sudden tension with the specific wary alertness she'd developed since her own abduction, an awareness no toddler should have needed to learn this young.
Ryke was already standing, his protective instincts fully engaged.
"Who are they meeting," he said.
"Unknown," Mitch said. "But the location is signifi
