Chapter Four Closer

Cole noticed the van the same moment I did.

“Don’t turn around,” he said. His voice stayed calm. “We’ve picked up a tail.”

June stiffened beside me. “Wardens?”

“Most likely.”

He didn’t speed up right away. He changed lanes once, then again, testing. The black van followed each time, keeping a careful distance.

“They’re not trying to catch us yet,” Cole said. “They’re confirming.”

“Confirming what?” I asked.

“That the signal is still coming from you.”

I touched the mark on my forehead. It felt warmer than it had ten minutes ago.

Cole took a sharp right, then another. He drove like someone who had done this before — no panic, only calculation. After several turns he pulled into a narrow service road between two warehouses and killed the engine.

“Out. Quiet.”

We moved fast. Cole led us through a gap in a fence and into a yard full of old shipping containers. The air smelled of rust and river water.

He stopped behind a stack of crates and looked back the way we came.

“They’ll check the car soon,” he said. “We move on foot from here.”

June kept close to me. “How do they keep finding us?”

“The mark,” Cole answered. He looked at me. “It’s quieter than before, but it’s still active. Every time your pulse rises, it gets a little clearer.”

I met his eyes. “Then teach me how to shut it down more.”

“I will. But not in the open.”

We walked for another ten minutes, staying close to the walls. Cole finally stopped at a low concrete building with boarded windows and a heavy side door. He unlocked it with a key that looked older than the lock.

Inside, the space was bare but solid. Thick walls. No direct sight lines from the street. A few metal shelves. Two old mattresses on the floor.

Cole barred the door. “This will hold for a while.”

June sat down on one of the mattresses and let out a long breath. “I keep waiting to wake up from this.”

“I know,” I said.

Cole stood near the door, listening for a moment. Then he turned to me.

“We continue the training. The more control you gain, the harder you are to track.”

I sat on the cold floor and faced him. June watched from the side, quiet now.

Cole sat across from me, closer than before. His voice dropped.

“Same as this morning. Find the pressure. But this time, when it rises, don’t just push it away. Hold it. Make it stay still.”

I closed my eyes.

The pressure came faster here, like the place itself made it easier. I felt the mark heat up.

“I have it.”

“Hold it,” Cole said. “Don’t let it open. Don’t let it sleep either. Just keep it there.”

It was harder than stopping it completely. The vision wanted to come through. Images pressed against the edge of my mind — dark streets, the tall shape, the feeling of being seen.

Blood ran from my nose again.

“Stay with me,” Cole said. His voice was steady, close. “You’re still here. Not there.”

I focused on his voice. On the cold floor under me. On the fact that I was choosing this.

The pressure shook, then slowly leveled.

I opened my eyes.

Cole was watching me carefully. There was something like approval in his face, small and controlled.

“Better,” he said. “You’re learning faster than I expected.”

“I don’t have time to learn slow.”

A faint shift crossed his mouth. Almost a smile, but not quite.

“No. You don’t.”

June spoke quietly. “How long can we stay here?”

Cole stood. “Until night. After that we need a new place. The Wardens will widen their search once they realize the car was empty.”

I wiped the blood from my face. “What about Adrian? He’s still looking for me.”

“He’s noise,” Cole said. “Useful noise sometimes. The Wardens prefer quiet targets. If he’s making a scene, it can buy us space.”

I nodded.

Cole went to check the perimeter of the room. I watched him move. Everything about him was deliberate. No wasted motion. No empty comfort. It was the opposite of how Adrian had always spoken to me — soft words that meant nothing.

June shifted closer. “You trust him?”

“I trust that he knows more about staying alive than I do right now.”

She looked at me for a long moment. “You’re different. Even more than yesterday.”

“I have to be.”

Night came slowly.

We ate a little from the supplies Cole had stored here. No one talked much. The training had left my head sore, but the mark felt more stable than before.

Cole took the first watch near the door.

I lay down on the other mattress, eyes open in the dark.

After a while his voice reached me, quiet.

“Thea.”

“I’m awake.”

“When this is over — if we make it past the blackout — what do you want?”

The question surprised me.

I stared at the ceiling. “I want to never wait for anyone to save me again.”

Silence stretched for a few seconds.

“Good answer,” he said.

I turned my head slightly toward his outline in the dark.

“What about you?”

He didn’t answer right away.

“I want to stop burying people I tried to protect.”

The honesty in his voice landed heavier than anything else he had said so far.

Outside, the wind moved along the river.

And somewhere in the city, the people hunting me were still searching.

But for the first time, the dark felt a little less empty.