She gestured to the asset. "You can let her go. She's useful, but not to you."
Soren did, because he didn't believe in holding onto anything that didn't want to stay. The woman limped to Lethren, paused, then turned to Soren and offered a nod, for what, he didn't know, or care.
Lethren said nothing else. Just watched as the security detail peeled off, leaving Soren and Kale alone on the plaza.
Kale bent over, hands on knees, breathing like he'd just run a marathon in sand. "You ever get tired of being the study group for the next disaster?"
Soren shrugged, then put pressure on the blue-black swelling at his hip. It tasted like glass, like victory, like a memory that wasn't his but that he couldn't quite let go of. "You alive?"
Kale spat a tooth into the slush. "Yeah."
"Then we're doing fine," Soren said. He looked up at the spire, the lights fracturing the darkness, and wondered where the real enemy would come from next.
