Chapter 90: Ch88. Pain as a teacher (12) - Left behind
Mara exhaled through her nose, dragging a hand through her silver-dyed hair as she watched the last wisps of blue light fade from where Miles had disappeared. The corridor still hummed faintly with residual energy, the space between reality and wherever he had gone was now warped in some imperceptible way.
"Son of a bitch really did it..." She muttered.
Beside her, Sarissa remained unnervingly silent. Her expression, usually so composed and arrogant, had twisted into something unreadable. Not anger, exactly. Not disappointment, either.
It was something in between. But Mara was not about to waste time deciphering it.
"Come on, Ice Queen. Let’s get out of here before we draw more attention." She turned, hands slipping into her coat pockets.
Sarissa inhaled sharply through her nose but didn’t argue. Together, they made their way back through the winding corridors of the Black Market, the neon lights flickering overhead casting jagged shadows across the stone walls. Mara kept a steady pace, ignoring the way Sarissa’s presence loomed beside her.
The girl walked like she owned the place, even though this was not her domain.
The Black Market was not a place where outsiders simply walked into and expected to leave unscathed. It was a living, breathing entity, a city beneath the city, where the desperate and the cunning thrived. Mara knew its rules, its rhythm.
Sarissa, for all her strength, was an anomaly here. A presence that didn’t belong.
They reached the exit without any incident – luckily – stepping onto the surface where the air was fresher, though still tinged with the ever-present scent of burning ozone.
"What now?" Sarissa stopped beside her.