#Chapter 202: The Cell Opens

Simon didn’t look at me when he keyed in the override code. His fingers moved over the panel with practiced precision, methodical and restrained, like he didn’t want to assign intention to the moment. The containment ward, which had cast a steady glow across the room for weeks, flickered once, a shiver of blue light, before collapsing inward in a soft crackle of static. Then the hum vanished, the one that had defined the space, leaving the room in unnatural quiet. The silence didn’t feel calm, it felt like her presence had changed the air itself, like the next sound would shatter something. She didn’t move, and I didn’t either. Amelia stood barefoot on the cold concrete, her spine straight and her chin high. Her arms hung loosely at her sides, but her posture wasn’t relaxed, it carried tension behind the stillness, a coiled readiness waiting for the first opening. Her gaze skimmed the spot where the barrier had been, as if expecting it to reappear, and then her eyes landed on me,