The night before the operation felt like an endless stretch of uncertainty, the air thick with the weight of what was about to come. The Citadel had been a fortress for centuries, its walls standing strong against the chaos of the outside world. But tonight, those walls felt too thin, too fragile against the impending storm that was about to break.
Camilla stood in the war room, surrounded by the soldiers who had fought beside her, the medics who had patched up the wounded, and Aiden, who was standing at the center of it all, commanding the operation with a quiet, unrelenting determination. She had never seen him like this before—so focused, so consumed by the mission. And yet, despite the coldness of his military exterior, she could feel the storm brewing inside him, the fear of what thi
