CHAPTER SEVENTY-EIGHT
Complete darkness swallowed the tunnel the instant the lights died. The toxin fog pressed heavier, every breath a struggle against invisible fire. Elena felt a warm, trembling hand seize hers in the black. The voice that had whispered close to her ear returned…soft, urgent, and carrying the exact cadence she had known since birth.
“Elena, it’s me. The real Lila. Follow my voice. Stay low. The echo and Victoria are disoriented. We have seconds before they recover.”
Elena’s heart lurched. The hand in hers felt real, alive, scarred in the familiar places from childhood scrapes on the same trails but after everything…the recordings, the mirror reflection, the echo wearing her twin’s face…she could not trust even this.
The real Lila pulled her forward through the dark,
