The building groaned like it was alive, walls trembling with each distant crash. Shadows stretched and coiled along the hallways, thick and suffocating, swallowing the dim light.
Ariana’s chest heaved. Dust scratched her throat. Her hands shook as she clutched Adrian’s arm, desperate for something solid to hold onto.
“They’re everywhere,” she whispered, voice tight, raw. “We can’t keep running forever.”
Adrian’s jaw flexed. His eyes burned with a storm she couldn’t decipher—anger, fear, obsession, and something else. Something dangerous.
“We’re not running,” he said, low and lethal. “We’re ending this.”
Ariana’s stomach twisted. “Ending what? Adrian… who are they? Why… Why me?”
He pressed a finger to her lips. “No time. Not now.”
The enemy appeared then, materializing from the shado
