The fire crackled softly. Not like the usual roaring blaze Kael fed with scraps and ego this one was calm. Controlled. Steady, like a heart finally remembering how to beat again.
For the first time since Jaden disappeared, no one was shouting, panicking, or falling apart.
They just sat together.
Rowan leaned over a sheet of glitch-marked paper, sketching what he now called "pulse shadows" paths of emotional residue illuminated by Niko's Echo Trace. Aya rested against the stone wall, her vines gently wrapping around her wrist like living bracelets. Kael twirled a flickering ember between his fingers, watching the flame shift color with each breath.
And Silas...
Silas was breaking again. Quietly.
---
He sat a few paces away, cross legged near the tunnel's far end, wings folded tight like a bird caging itself. His hoodie was damp with condensation. His hands clenched the edge of a broken stone tile so hard his knuckles were nearly white.
His aura flickered like the glitch couldn't decide whether to accept him or erase him.
Aya noticed first.
She always did.
---
She approached slowly, stepping over vines and ash. "Silas?"
He didn't look at her.
His voice, when it came, was low. Raw. "It was easier when I thought he was gone."
Rowan looked up, startled. "What?"
Silas finally turned to face them. His eyes once bright with mocking light were dim now. Uneven. One wing twitched behind him, reacting to emotion he couldn't hide.
"Don't get me wrong," he said bitterly. "I'm glad he's alive. Or... part of him is. But hope hurts more than certainty."
Kael snorted. "You sound like you want to give up."
"I've never wanted anything more."
---
The fire popped in the quiet that followed.
Then Aya sat beside him. Close. Not touching.
"You were the first to fight for him," she said softly. "And you've been burning yourself alive ever since."
"I'm an angel," he muttered. "That's what we do."
"No," Rowan interrupted, standing now. "You're not just an angel. You're his. You said it yourself: you walked away from Heaven because of him."
Silas flinched. "You make it sound noble."
"It was," Niko said, joining them. Her voice was quiet. Honest. "Even if it wasn't perfect."
---
Kael stepped forward, fire still dancing on his palms.
"You think we didn't want to break when he vanished?" he asked. "I almost did. But Jaden… he wouldn't want that. He'd want us to punch the glitch in the face and keep going."
Silas huffed. "Classic Jaden."
His voice cracked halfway through the sentence.
Aya leaned closer. "You never told us what happened the moment before he vanished."
Silas looked up, eyes shining. "He was reaching for me."
Rowan's breath caught.
"He fell backward through the glitch, and I—I froze. I reached out, but I wasn't fast enough."
The words spilled like blood.
"I was always fast enough. Always. But not this time. And now… every second I spend not fixing it feels like a betrayal."
---
Silas's wings unfurled slightly, light leaking through the fractures.
"I didn't just fall from Heaven," he whispered. "I walked. And not for justice. Not for rebellion."
Everyone listened.
"I walked because of him. Because I saw something in him that made eternity seem too quiet."
The silence that followed was heavy. Sacred.
---
Then Niko stepped forward.
She reached into her pocket and pulled out a small, tattered drawing something Jaden had made of the team once, half-finished, cartoonish.
"Do you think he's forgotten us?" she asked.
"No," Silas whispered.
"Then don't forget him either," she said, placing the picture in his palm.
---
The glitch-light around Silas began to slow. Stabilize.
Rowan approached next, offering one of his worn notebooks. "He corrected my math. Quietly. Without credit. Every time I thought I was alone, I'd find his handwriting in my margins."
Kael dropped a burnt spoon next to the picture. "He made me pineapple stew when I was too beat up to walk. Worst food I ever loved."
Aya opened her palm. Inside was a seed a vine blossom Jaden had unknowingly helped her nurture.
"I thought I was growing this alone. But he watered it when I wasn't looking."
---
Silas stared at the pile of objects. A drawing. A notebook. A spoon. A seed.
Small things.
But they were everything.
They were pieces of Jaden.
Not his body. Not his powers.
His presence.
His effect.
---
Slowly, Silas's wings unfolded to full length.
No longer flickering.
Stable.
He stood shaky, but upright.
His eyes shimmered again, this time not with glitch-fire.
But with grief.
And hope.
---
"I've been trying to carry him like he was my punishment," Silas said. "But he's not. He's my choice."
Kael smirked. "Took you long enough."
Aya held out her hand.
Silas took it.
---
Rowan adjusted his bag. "Niko?"
She turned toward the tunnel entrance, eyes distant.
"I can still feel him," she said. "The trace is strong. Clearer now."
She looked back over her shoulder.
"He's waiting."
---
They packed up quickly, moving in unison for the first time in days.
As they stepped into the dark, the fire behind them dimmed.
But something else burned brighter inside each of them.
Resolve.
---
End of Chapter 17
Author's note:
Now my baby angel is stable that good for nothing Jaden making my baby worry