The road north was almost empty.
That should have felt peaceful. It didn't.
It felt like the world was making space around her.
Aria sat in the passenger seat with her forehead against the cold window, watching the city thin into suburbs, then warehouses, then stretches of trees and wet roadside grass. Morning had fully arrived now. The sky was pale and clean. Too clean, after everything.
Kai drove with one hand on the wheel. The other rested near the console, close enough to reach her if he needed to. He hadn't said much in the last twenty minutes. Neither had she.
Some silences healed.
This one measured distance.
Behind them, Seattle kept moving. Buses ran. News anchors talked. Officials rewrote briefings. The dead would be counted. The damage would be priced. And somewhere inside all that ordinary machinery, people would decide what story made them feel safest.
Aria, anomaly, savior, threat.
Maybe all three.
Kai glanced at her. "You're doing it again."
