I didn't even realize how fast I was walking until the freight yard's rusting fence came into view.
My boots were practically vibrating with the urge to move—leave, run, shift, go. I needed to get back to him. To Nine. To the only quiet thing in this nightmare of a world.
But just as I reached the edge of the gravel, Kol stepped in front of me.
He wasn't angry. He wasn't even armed. Just standing there like he'd been waiting.
"Don't," he said.
I froze.
Nyx stirred in my chest, impatient. Move him.
"Kol," I said carefully, "step aside."
He didn't.
Instead, he looked me straight in the eye. Calm. Controlled. And tired.
"You're going back, aren't you?"
I didn't answer.
"You smell like it," he added. "Like blood and loyalty and something too sharp to be survival."
"I'm not asking permission."
"I know."
Then why was he still here?
I shifted my weight slightly, calculating the angle it would take to brush past him without knocking him over—or breaking something.
But Kol knew that look. He raised a hand before I could try. "You leave now," he said, "you get everyone else killed."
That stopped me.
"Come again?"
"You heard me."
I narrowed my eyes. "The shipment's already gone. We did the job. They've got what they wanted."
"And they've also got trackers. Alerts. Timers," he said. "The second you step off-path, they'll know. And they'll assume the worst."
"They'd be right."
Kol's jaw twitched. "Doesn't matter. You think they'll just come for you?"
I didn't answer.
He filled the silence instead. "No. They'll come for us. One of us will be made an example. Another will be tortured for information. The rest will vanish."
Nyx growled. He's not wrong.
My hands clenched. "You think I don't care about that?"
"I think you care more about him," Kol said.
He didn't mean it like a jab.
He meant it like the truth.
And it was.
The worst part was—he understood. I could see it in the way he didn't raise his voice, didn't try to guilt me. Just stood there, blocking the way like someone who knew all too well what it was to love something fragile in a world made for breaking.
"He's my mate," I whispered.
Kol's eyes flicked up slightly. He didn't ask questions. Just exhaled, slow. "Then don't make us his body count."
I turned my back on the fence.
Stared out over the wide, rusted yard. Empty crates. Cold sky. And a silence that didn't feel natural.
Tiger's voice crackled over the comm. "Rhea. You copy?"
I tapped my earpiece. "Yeah."
"We've got eyes."
I stiffened. "How many?"
"Too far to count. But they're not local. Not ours either."
Kol pressed his earpiece closer. "Weapons drawn?"
"Not yet," Tiger replied. "But they're not here to sell us flowers."
I looked at Kol. "You think they're here for me?"
He shook his head. "They're here for something. And they waited until we were stuck."
"No signals. No back gate. No backup."
"Exactly."
Nyx was already scanning the air. There are more than eight. Maybe twelve. Drones, too. This wasn't a tail. This was a plan.
I cursed under my breath.
The safe zone had been compromised.
Not blown open.
Not stormed.
Just… quietly surrounded.
It was worse than an ambush.
Because it meant they were waiting for us to make the next move.
Mick was pacing inside the yard now. Jai and one of the others had retreated into the shadows, weapons close but not drawn. Everyone was pretending to stay calm. But I could feel the nerves sinking in. The dread. The disbelief that after everything—we weren't going anywhere.
I paced a slow circle at the edge of the gravel. Tried to think. Tried to breathe.
But all I could picture was Nine.
In his white room. Sitting alone on the floor. Waiting for me.
Still.
Soft.
Confused.
Maybe even scared.
I could still feel his fingers curling into my sleeve last time I left.
Like he thought maybe, if he held on long enough, I wouldn't go.
And now?
Now I was stuck behind a chain-link fence with blood on my teeth and strangers closing in from all sides.
"I need to go," I said, more to myself than anyone.
Kol didn't answer.
Tiger did, through the comms. "Not without getting the rest of us killed."
And there it was.
The weight of it.
Heavy.
Final.
Nyx went quiet for the first time in hours.
Because even she knew.
We weren't going anywhere.