By the time the car screeched to a halt, my chest still burned with the echo of gunfire. The world outside felt like it was still chasing us, bullets in the shadows, ghosts in the silence. My pulse hammered so hard it drowned out my thoughts.
The underground garage was a cavern of shadows, lit only by the faint flicker of a dying fluorescent bulb. The air smelled of damp concrete and motor oil, thick with the kind of stillness that made my skin prickle.
Valen stepped out first, his boots echoing against the ground, each sound sharp enough to cut through my nerves…
I followed, my legs unsteady, my pulse still hammering like a war drum in my chest,heart still pounding with the memory of gunfire.
He didn’t look back as he led me toward a rusted metal door in the corner of the garage. His
