The tension in the air was thick, almost suffocating. I stood at the edge of the war room, my hands clenched into fists at my sides. The sound of marching boots echoed in the distance, the ground beneath me trembling with every step of Magnus’s army. My heart pounded, my mind racing with a thousand different thoughts, none of them comforting.
Elias’s voice broke through the chaos swirling in my mind. “You should stay inside, Lena. It’s not safe here.”
I turned toward him, my breath shallow as I looked into his eyes—eyes that had once been cold and calculating, but now held something warmer, something real. The same warmth that made me question everything I thought I knew. I shook my head, refusing to move. “I can’t. I have to be here. I can’t hide away while everything falls apart.”
Eli
