INSIDE THE hostel, everything was quiet.
Jeremiah closed the door without a sound and slid the deadbolt into place. Then the chain. Then the secondary lock he had installed himself, hands steady, movements precise. Only after he finished did he turn around.
Lily was sitting on the edge of the bed, shoes still on, coat half-fallen from her shoulders like she’d forgotten how gravity worked. Her hands rested limply in her lap. She wasn’t shaking anymore.
She knew that scared him more.
“They didn’t follow,” Jeremiah said softly. “I checked the block twice.”
Lily nodded. The motion was small. Careful.
Robert had failed to find them.
That fact hovered in the room like an unanswered question. It should have felt like victory. Instead, it sat in Lily’s chest like something unfinished, somet
