Elias felt it before it happened.
The pressure in the room shifted…like the air had been sucked out for a second and then rushed back in.
The warmth from the noodles on the nightstand faded first, then the light around the window went flat, gray, like someone had turned the color off.
He looked up sharply.
Sera was mid-bite, her hand pausing halfway to her mouth, and her eyes distant and intent on nothing.
Luci's head lifted from his paws, hackles rising without a sound.
A soundless snap cracked through the air, and everything that wasn't alive seemed to hold its breath.
The pot on the washstand rattled once, the surface trembling in a way that wasn't quite vibration.
Then the latch at the door shifted.
Click. Click.
Like little fingers testing to see if it would hold.
No one spoke.
The sound of silence was louder than breath.
Zubair was already standing, his hand steady on the grip of his pistol.
