The air changed the moment Noah said it.
I already did.
It wasn't loud. It wasn't dramatic. But it carried weight, the kind that settled heavily into the silence afterward. Even the man across from them seemed to pause for a second longer than before, studying Noah with a sharper kind of attention now.
Aiden felt it too.
That shift.
Because up until now, everything had still felt uncertain, unstable, like they were balancing on the edge of something without fully committing to a direction. But Noah's answer cut through all of that hesitation.
A side had been chosen.
Whether the consequences were survivable or not.
The man exhaled softly, almost amused again, though this time there was less mockery in it. "Interesting."
Aiden crossed his arms tighter. "You say that a lot."
"Because most people don't choose that quickly," the man replied.
Noah didn't move. "I'm not most people."
"No," the man agreed quietly. "You're not."
