The gate to Floor 16 wouldn't open for three days.
Some bureaucratic requirement buried in Umbral's ancient laws, a waiting period that gave approved climbers time to prepare and gave the Houses time to ensure all proper protocols were followed. Dante suspected it was designed to give people a chance to reconsider, to look at the path ahead and decide whether they really wanted to keep climbing.
None of the Lightbreakers reconsidered.
Instead, they did something they rarely had time for: they rested.
The safehouse common room was transformed into something that almost resembled normalcy.
Astrid and Ren faced off across a table, their hands locked in an arm-wrestling match that had already destroyed two chairs and cracked the table's surface. The berserker's face was red with effort while the tank's expression showed nothing but patient determination.
"Give up," Astrid growled through gritted teeth.
"Never."
"Your arm's going to break."
