I landed in Harrington just before evening on the earliest flight out of Japan.
The entire trip back, my thoughts had been circling the same impossible fact.
Felix was alive.
Not dead.
Not buried somewhere I would never find.
Not a memory I was being punished by.
Alive.
The word still felt foreign every time it crossed my mind.
For four years I had carried the weight of his death everywhere I went. Every decision. Every nightmare. Every moment of panic whenever his name surfaced unexpectedly. It had become such a permanent part of me that I didn't know what to do with its absence.
The guilt wasn't gone.
But it wasn't the same anymore.
And neither was I.
Then there was Kuro.
I had spoken to Ethan during the flight. He sounded completely normal. Relaxed. Unaware.
That should have reassured me.
Instead it made me more nervous.
Because now I knew exactly who Kuro was.
And Ethan didn't.
I went straight from the airport to Parallex HQ.
