The city did not react immediately.That was the first thing Kendrick noticed as they stepped out of the facility. There were no sirens, no sudden chaos spilling into the streets, no obvious sign that something massive had just shifted beneath the surface of everything people relied on every day. Cars still moved, conversations still flowed, lights still changed at intersections with quiet precision.But something was different.Subtle.Almost unnoticeable.Yet undeniable.Sia walked beside him, her hands tucked into her jacket pockets as her eyes scanned the environment with quiet intensity. She had always been good at spotting inconsistencies, and right now, the world felt just slightly out of sync.“Feels like the city is holding its breath,” she said.Kendrick nodded faintly. “Because it doesn’t know what just changed.”Behind them, Sainz stepped out into the open air, her expression calm but distant in a way that wasn’t unsettling anymore just thoughtful. The connection she had f

For a few seconds, nobody said anything.The city stretched below them in restless silence, headlights moving through the streets like veins of light, while the tension on the rooftop pressed down harder than the night air. Kael stood in front of them with that same unreadable calm, as if he had already accepted whatever answer Sainz was going to give before she even spoke.Kendrick hated that.More than that, he hated the way Sainz had gone quiet.Because he knew that look.She was thinking too deeply.And every time she did that lately, the answer she reached was never the one he wanted.“You’re not considering this,” Kendrick said at last, his voice low and controlled. “Tell me you’re not.”Sainz turned to look at him, and for a moment her expression softened because she knew exactly what he was hearing in Kael’s words.Leave.Walk into something unknown.Trust a stranger who clearly knew more than he was saying.“No one said I’m agreeing to anything,” she said quietly.Kael’s voic

The rooftop shattered under pressure.Not all at once, but in cracks that spread like veins beneath their feet, each impact from the ongoing fight pushing the structure closer to collapse. The air itself felt unstable, like reality had been stretched too far and was struggling to hold together.No one was holding back anymore.Selene moved like a blade through space, her fingers slicing through the air as invisible currents bent and snapped around her. Every motion she made disrupted the enforcers’ precision, forcing them to adjust in ways they clearly weren’t designed to handle. The rings on her hands glowed brighter now, pulsing in sync with something unseen.Rowan met force with force.Every time one of the enforcers struck, he answered with equal intensity, their collisions sending shockwaves across the rooftop. He didn’t dodge much he absorbed, redirected, and countered, his movements grounded, brutal, efficient.Milo stayed light.Too light.He moved around the edges of the figh

The rooftop didn’t just crack this time.It split.A deep fracture tore across the surface beneath Sainz’s feet as the force she released surged outward in a violent wave. The air warped around her, bending light, distorting space, turning everything within a few meters into something unstable and unpredictable.No one moved.Not because they didn’t want to.Because for the first timeThey couldn’t.The anchors froze.All six of them.Locked in place like something far above their control had suddenly rewritten their command.Sia stared, her voice barely above a whisper. “Okay… that’s not normal.”Amara didn’t respond.Her instincts were screaming, but even she didn’t know where to aim anymore.Because the threat had shifted.And it was standing right in front of them.Sainz took another step forward.Slow.Controlled.But everything around her reacted like she wasn’t.The connection inside her wasn’t flowing anymore.It was overflowing.Spilling into places it wasn’t supposed to reac

They didn’t speak much on the way out.Not because there was nothing to say.But because there was too much.The rooftop fight still lingered in the air, in their bodies, in the quiet tension that followed them down through narrow stairwells and dark corridors until the noise of the city swallowed them again.Rowan led.Silent.Efficient.Like he had done this before.Too many times.“This way,” he said, pushing open a rusted door that led into an abandoned lower-level structure tucked between older buildings. It wasn’t visible from the street hidden just enough to avoid attention, but stable enough to hold them for now.Temporary.Like everything else.Inside, the space was dim but secure.Concrete walls.Minimal openings.One entrance.Easy to defend.Amara moved first, checking corners, exits, angles her instincts automatic.“Clear,” she said.Sia dropped onto a nearby surface immediately, exhaling hard. “Finally… a place where nothing is trying to kill us for five minutes.”Milo s