The air inside the hidden sanctuary was heavy, thick with the scent of smoldering timber and the metallic tang of fresh blood. Gillian leaned heavily against the scorched stone wall, his breathing shallow and jagged. Every attempt to inhale sent a sharp, agonizing fire through his torso where the bullet had torn through his side. The panic room, designed to be an impenetrable fortress, was now a fragile cage as the heat from the raging inferno outside seeped through the heavy steel door.
"Stay with me, Gillian," Ghea whispered, her voice trembling but resolute.
She knelt beside him, her hands moving with frantic, desperate grace. She ignored the way her own clothes were singed from the heat, focusing entirely on the crimson pool spreading across the floor. As she pressed a makeshift b
