The power was still out, yet thin fingers of amber emergency light crawled down the corridor walls, curling like nervous spirits searching for a body to haunt. Somewhere far below, the backup generator throbbed in an uneven heartbeat, reminding everyone inside the coastal estate that safety was a myth bought on borrowed time.
Elara pulled away from Aeron, breath shallow, lips still tingling from the contact. For a single suspended second one fragile heartbeat everything else in the universe blurred: Kael's lingering threat, the cracked estate defenses, the half-decoded codes hidden in Voss's drive. It all melted into that heated space between them, into the taste of salt and storm on Aeron's lips.
Then her communicator crackled, a rude jolt back to command-mode reality.
Nova: "Perimeter sensors back online… but something's moving out at sea."
