The move into the apartment was a quiet, frantic operation that happened in the dead of night. They moved only the essentials: Jake's main computer tower and two monitors, a box of reference books that ranged from obscure mythology to theoretical physics, Ren's entire collection of swords, and all of Thea's art supplies. The apartment, once a symbol of Kofi and Nina's new life together, was now a crowded, tense command center. It felt less like a home and more like a safe house in a spy movie.
No one slept that first night. Ren sat watch in a chair by the front door, his posture perfectly still, his presence a silent, grounding weight in the room. The others just lay in their designated spots—Jake and Ruby on an air mattress in the living room, Thea on the couch—listening to the unfamiliar sounds of a house full of too many anxious people breathing in the dark.
