The floor was still wet when fourteen people and a dire wolf walked into the lab.
It wasn't fresh, it wasn't dripping.
It was just damp in that way stone became when it had been soaked long enough to remember.
Blood had seeped into the pores of the floor and refused to leave, leaving darkened veins that traced the amphitheater's curve like something organic had once lived here and died slowly.
Sera stood in the center of it.
Aerenyx was behind her, his arm loose around her waist, not holding her upright, not restraining her, simply existing there. His presence was heat without pressure, an awareness against her back that registered the same way gravity did — constant, unarguable. She didn't lean into it. She didn't pull away.
She allowed it because she wanted it to be there… only she didn't know how to ask him to pull her in closer.
Adam, on the other hand, paced around the room.
