The smoke hadn't cleared by the time Aria opened her eyes.
Her ears rang. Her body ached. The corridor outside the sealed chamber was coated in ash and debris. Flames licked the edge of a shattered panel before flickering out, the last remnants of Amara's sacrifice still burning in the air.
She tried to move, but pain shot through her ribs. Still, she forced herself up.
"Xander?" she rasped, coughing.
He appeared from behind a bent support beam, smeared in soot, blood trickling from a gash above his brow. The moment he saw her, relief crashed over his face like a wave.
"You're alive," he breathed, pulling her into his arms.
For a long moment, they didn't speak. There was nothing to say that would make it make sense.
Then Aria broke the silence. "She knew what she was doing."
"I know," Xander said softly. "But it doesn't make it easier."
They stood amidst the rubble, the weight of everything pressing down on them. Amara was gone. The lab was gone. But the network had been exposed—the signal Amara triggered sent data to hundreds of rebel outposts, allies they didn't know they had.
There was no going back.
And ahead? Only war.
"She gave us a chance," Aria whispered. "We can't waste it."
Xander nodded, his hand finding hers.
No more running. No more hiding.
They would fight.
Together.