The rest of the lecture passed in a blur.
Liora didn't hear a word the professor said. Her attention kept drifting back to the girl in the third row how she laughed too loudly afterward, how she kept touching her arm like she needed to remind herself it was real. The shadow was gone, but the air around her still felt thin, stretched.
When the class finally ended, Aiden caught Liora's wrist before she could stand.
"You can't do that again," he said quietly.
She looked at him, heart pounding. "I didn't have a choice."
"You always have a choice," he replied. "You just made the most dangerous one."
Seren waited for them outside the building, leaning against the wall like she had nowhere else to be. Her expression was unreadable now no teasing, no smirk. Just focus.
"They felt that," Seren said. "Not just the enforcers. The Circle itself."
Liora's stomach twisted. "Because I stopped them."
"Because you proved you can," Aiden said. "That changes everything."
They walked across campus together, but the space around them felt different. Too quiet. Liora became acutely aware of reflections in glass doors, of the way certain people stood too still, eyes lingering a fraction of a second too long.
Surveillance.
Not cameras.
People.
"Don't look directly at them," Aiden murmured. "Act normal."
"I am being normal," Liora muttered, though her pulse betrayed her.
Seren slowed her steps, dropping back slightly. "They're not going to grab you here," she said. "Not yet. This is the watching phase."
"That's supposed to be comforting?" Liora asked.
"No," Seren said. "It's supposed to be informative."
They reached the edge of campus where the city bled back in—cafés, traffic, noise. Aiden stopped walking.
"We need to move you," he said. "Somewhere off their usual routes."
Liora frowned. "I can't just disappear. That's what they do."
Aiden hesitated. Just for a second. "Then we limit exposure. We adjust patterns."
Seren looked between them, something tense flickering across her face. "You're assuming time is on our side."
Aiden turned to her sharply. "What does that mean?"
She exhaled, rubbing the back of her neck. "It means the Circle doesn't usually send enforcers unless a higher-level process is already underway."
Liora felt cold. "What kind of process?"
Seren met her eyes. "A sweep."
Aiden went still. "They wouldn't risk that over one subject."
Seren's voice dropped. "Not one. Two."
Liora's breath hitched. "Two?"
Seren nodded once. "You… and the girl you saved."
The words landed like a fracture.
"If they can't erase you quietly," Seren continued, "they erase around you. Anyone connected. Anyone noticed."
Liora's hands curled into fists. "Then I won't let them."
Aiden looked at her, fear and pride warring in his expression. "You don't get to decide that alone."
"I know," she said softly. "That's why I'm still here."
Across the street, a man standing at a bus stop lifted his head.
His eyes were empty.
And he was looking straight at Liora.