Hearts of the Neon Sky

ffiti. A broken clock hung sideways, still ticking for no one. The buzz of old lights hummed above their heads, the only sound besides their ragged breathing. Celia collapsed against a cracked pillar

elia exchanged a look with Lawrence. Weeks wasn't good enough. Cassian could regroup, retaliate. He could still silence the people if they didn't hit him harder-soon. "We need to finish it," Lawrence said aloud. Celia nodded grimly. "Yeah. We started the fire. Now we have to burn it all down." They rested briefly, patching each other's scrapes with what little med supplies they carried. Celia had to stop herself from staring at Lawrence too long when he wasn't looking-at the new scars on his knuckles, the grim determination in his jaw. He wasn't the same man who had stumbled into her life, desperate and afraid. He was something sharper now. Angrier. More dangerous. And it scared her more than all the guards and guns put together. "You're thinking too loud," he said without opening his eyes. She snorted. "You're paranoid." "Maybe." He cracked one eye open and smirked. "But you've got that look." "What look?" "The one that says you're wondering if you should've ditched me back at the scrapyard." Celia pretended to think. "Well, you did bring a death squad down on my head. And you smell terrible." He chuckled. "Fair." A comfortable silence stretched betwee