Neither spoke, and that silence hung between them like a fragile thread. Suspicion simmered beneath their shared exhaustion. Zaki had no knowledge of her identity, her enemies, or why fate had thrown her into his path. Easther, in turn, knew nothing about him—not the people who hunted him, not the battles he had survived, not whether he was friend or foe. They were strangers forced together by circumstance, yet the shared peril demanded a precarious alliance.
A distant bark sliced through the storm’s roar. Zaki stiffened. His instincts screamed danger. Before he could react, a small, firm hand gripped his wrist and yanked him forward.
The river’s cold, furious current swallowed him. He gasped as the icy water pulled him under, clawing at him, dragging him toward the waterfall. Panic flar
