Chapter 172: The Other Side of the Water

Chapter 172: Chapter 172: The Other Side of the Water

The pharmacy district had been picked over enough times now that Vanya had started ranging further from the building than she liked, the storm-rated speedboat cutting a clean path through flooded streets that grew less familiar with every trip.

They finished the run without incident, most of the haul vanishing quietly into Vanya’s space, a small, deliberate handful of visible supplies loaded into the boat’s storage compartment for appearance’s sake — a habit Vanya had settled into weeks ago, some old instinct against advertising exactly how much easier her ability made everything.

By the time they finished, the storm had eased into a lighter drizzle, and the return trip passed quickly, the building’s sixth-floor entrance coming into view faster than expected.

They weren’t the only ones approaching the dock.

A second boat cut through the water from the opposite direction, moving fast, five figures visible aboard, and Vanya’s hand went instantly to the weapon at her hip, every instinct sharpened by weeks of exactly this kind of uncertainty and, more recently, by the story that had already spread through the building about an ambush earlier that same day.

"Persephone," she said, low, urgent. "Down."

Persephone dropped low without question, crossbow already rising, and Harold gripped his crowbar tighter, all three of them going utterly still and watchful as the second boat closed the distance.

On the other boat, the same wary stillness had settled over its occupants. Erik’s hand rested near his pistol, Killian’s eyes narrowed, tracking the approaching craft with the same cold, assessing focus he’d have given any unknown threat, and Kai had gone quiet in a way that rarely happened unless something genuinely warranted it.

"Could be more of the same," Erik said quietly, remembering the four men from that morning, remembering Marcus’s body left behind in the flooded street. "Stay ready."

The two boats drew close enough that neither side could mistake the other’s readiness for anything but exactly what it was — two groups, both armed, both braced, neither willing to be the first to lower their guard in a world that had given them every reason not to.

"We don’t want trouble," Vanya called across the narrowing gap, voice flat and even despite the tension coiled through her frame.

Erik’s posture eased the instant he heard her, recognition immediate. "Vanya."

She squinted through the rain, the tension in her shoulders dropping a fraction as the shape of the boat’s occupants resolved into people she actually knew. "Erik."

"Didn’t expect to run into you out here," he said, hand drifting fully away from his weapon now.

"Neither did I," she admitted, lowering her own weapon.

Persephone had gone still beside her, crossbow forgotten as her eyes swept past Erik toward the woman seated near the boat’s stern — red hair, soaked dark from the rain, features still slightly obscured by the storm’s gray light, and something in the shape of her refused to be dismissed as coincidence.

"Penny?"

The woman on the other boat went utterly still, straining to see through the drizzle before recognition broke fully across her face.

"Seffy?"

"It’s you!" Persephone was already moving, half-climbing over her own boat’s rail before Harold could catch her, closing the distance between the two vessels with an eagerness that made Killian reach out instinctively to steady the gap as both boats drew alongside each other.

She reached Penelope first, pulling her into a tight, delighted hug the moment the boats settled close enough, laughing into her cousin’s shoulder with an unguarded relief that had nothing performed about it at all — the first genuine, uncomplicated joy she’d let herself feel since the world had ended.

"I can’t believe this," Persephone said, pulling back just enough to look at her properly, grinning wide. "I thought you were still at the Ryker estate. I was going to start looking for you the second the flooding let up."

"I didn’t know where you were either," Penelope said, smiling despite the disbelief still written across her face. "I tried calling. So many times. Nothing ever connected."

"Signal’s been useless for weeks," Persephone said, shaking her head. "I can’t believe we’ve been in the same city this whole time and neither of us thought to check the one place close enough to actually search."

"We’re in the same building," Erik said quietly, something dry and disbelieving in his voice. "That’s the part that’s going to take a while to feel real."

Kai leaned over from his own seat, grinning. "I don’t think we’ve actually met."

"You haven’t," Penelope confirmed, still holding tightly to Persephone’s hand. "Perse, this is Kai. My brother."

"Ah." Persephone extended a hand, easy smile already back in full force. "So you’re the one Penny used to complain about stealing her clothes."

"Slander," Kai said immediately, grinning as he shook her hand. "I borrowed them. There’s a difference."

Ben offered a quieter, friendlier wave from further back in the boat, and Persephone returned it warmly, already cataloguing the new faces the same easy, practiced way she cataloged everyone — filing them somewhere between stranger and potential, waiting to see which direction they’d earn.

Penelope’s gaze drifted past her cousin then, toward Vanya, and something in her posture shifted — not hostile, not even particularly guarded, just quieter, a careful distance settling into place that hadn’t been there a moment earlier.

"Vanya," she said, polite, even. "Good to see you again."

"You as well," Vanya said, matching the same measured tone, though her eyes tracked the small shift in Penelope’s demeanor with quiet, professional attention.

Harold, still gripping his crowbar loosely, glanced between the two women with faint curiosity, though he said nothing, having learned weeks ago that some silences were better left uninterrupted.

They guided both boats the rest of the way to the dock together, and by the time everyone had climbed out onto the platform, Penelope still hadn’t let go of her cousin’s hand, both of them already trading fragments of the weeks they’d missed — Persephone’s fever, Vanya and Harold’s care, the satellite phone, Silver’s near-miss on the call.

"He almost told me," Penelope said, some of the earlier joy dimming slightly at the memory. "Right before the line cut out. Said something about knowing the building. I’ve been turning it over for days, trying to guess what he meant."

"That would have been about me," Persephone said, squeezing her hand. "He must have realized we were in the same place. I wonder if he’s figured it out fully yet, wherever he is now."

"He will," Penelope said, certain. "And when he does, he’s going to lose his mind that we found each other before he even got here."

Persephone laughed, bright and genuine. "Small mercy, I suppose. Something good happening before the rest of the chaos catches up."

"You should come up," Penelope said, turning fully toward Persephone now, warmth unmistakable. "Properly. We have room, and I want you close, not floors away not knowing you’re even there."

"I’d love that," Persephone said immediately, squeezing her hand.

Vanya and Harold exchanged a brief glance, neither of them offended by the absence of a matching invitation, though Harold looked faintly curious about it regardless.

"We’ll head back to our own floor," Vanya said easily, already turning toward the stairwell. "Persephone, come find us once you’re settled, if you’d like."

"I will," Persephone promised, already being tugged gently toward the stairs by Penelope, who seemed unwilling to let even a few feet of distance open up between them again so soon.

Erik lingered a moment longer near Vanya before following the others. "Thank you for keeping her safe. Persephone, I mean. Weeks of that, before any of us knew to look."

"She managed most of it herself," Vanya said. "We simply didn’t get in her way."

Erik’s mouth curved slightly at that, something warm passing behind his eyes before he turned to follow the rest of the group toward the stairwell, Kai already teasing Persephone about something two steps ahead of him.

Killian stayed close to Penelope’s side as the group climbed, quiet, watchful, though his attention kept drifting once toward the small, deliberate distance she’d kept from Vanya on the dock — noted, filed away, not yet questioned. He said nothing about it. It wasn’t his place to press, not tonight, not when she still hadn’t offered the reason herself.

Vanya and Harold made their way back to the twentieth floor alone, Persephone’s bright, delighted laughter still carrying faintly down the stairwell behind them.

Vanya paused at her own door a moment longer than necessary, turning the small, careful distance over in her mind — not hostility, nothing so simple as that, just the particular wariness of someone guarding against a threat they hadn’t named yet.

Something to watch, she thought, letting herself inside. Not today. But eventually.

Behind her, Harold shrugged off his soaked jacket and dropped onto the couch, glancing toward her with quiet curiosity. "You think Penelope’s got a problem with you?"

"I don’t know," Vanya admitted, crossing to check the window latch out of old habit. "But something about me unsettles her, and I’d rather understand it than ignore it and be caught off guard later."

"Maybe it’s nothing," Harold offered. "Maybe she’s just tired. Everyone’s on edge lately."

"Maybe," Vanya allowed, though she didn’t sound especially convinced. She settled into the chair across from him, the quiet of the apartment finally catching up to the exhaustion of the day’s run, and let the question sit unresolved for now, the way she let most unresolved things sit until circumstance eventually forced an answer out of them.

Outside, the rain continued its steady rhythm against the windows, and several floors up, Persephone’s laughter rang out again, muffled but unmistakable, filling a home that had gone quiet with worry for far too many weeks now finally sounding, however briefly, like exactly what it was supposed to be.