They came back to the apartment at half past ten.
Sela went to her room without ceremony, the way she did things that were complete. She said goodnight to Aiden when she passed him in the corridor, briefly and with the specific warmth she had been giving him since the morning he had told her the truth about the fourteen months.
The apartment settled into its late-night quiet.
Tal had gone to bed. Suri was finishing her documentation. Nia had her maps.
Kael found Aiden at the window.
The same window. The same street. The particular quality of the city at this hour, the specific urban night that was never fully dark and never fully quiet but came closest to both after ten on a Sunday.
Aiden heard him come in.
He turned.
Kael looked at him.
He looked at him the way he had been looking at him since the street after the transit hub, the way that had nothing managed in it.
"How was it," Aiden said.
"Good," Kael said. "She lit the lamp."
Aiden looked at him.
