*Chapter 23:
ALESSIA
We ran through the back corridor with gunfire tearing apart the walls behind us. Plaster and blood sprayed across the floor, and Liam’s threat still echoed in my skull. _I’m coming for you._ The words sat in my bones like ice, but we couldn’t stop, we wouldn’t stop. Not with eleven hours and fifty-nine minutes still on the Elder’s clock.
Azriel stopped suddenly, and the rest of us almost collided with him. Three Shadowmoon scouts dropped from the ceiling vent ahead of us without a sound. Their armor was black, their rifles already raised, and there was no cover in the narrow hall. Azriel moved on instinct, stepping directly in front of me and blocking my body with his own. His wolf was at the surface, snarling and ready to die before he let a single bullet touch me
