The armored car rolled to a stop just outside the walls as the massive gates began their slow, grinding ascent. Metal screamed against metal, floodlights sweeping across the sand in blinding white arcs.
"I once doubted the walls," Harmione said, her voice quiet, eyes fixed on the rising barrier. Something new lived in her face, a harder kind of understanding that hadn't been there when we left.
"You can't appreciate what you have until you lose it," Mercury answered from the driver's seat.
Nobody argued.
The gates opened fully with a final, thunderous clang. Sherry's eyes were bright beside me, not crying but close, the raw expression of someone who had been afraid they weren't coming back and was now staring at proof they had. Code lay slumped in his seat with his eyes closed, the only one for whom returning seemed to be a neutral event.
