When Phei and Melissa returned to the elevator, it was waiting exactly where they had left it on the same floor; it had remained frozen upon the number Phei had halted before taking Melissa through the portal.
He stepped back into the cabin with her hand in his, released whatever had been holding the elevator in place, and the doors closed before the ascent toward the penthouse resumed as though its passengers had never disappeared halfway through the journey.
Melissa leaned lightly against his arm and watched him from the corner of her eye.
She had been doing that rather often since yesterday.
Two nights ago, Phei had frightened her because she had felt enough of what happened around him to understand that something had changed on a scale his cultivation alone could never explain.
She had known Phei was growing stronger for a long time. Everyone around him knew it:
