Oaths And Ashes
Smoke clung to the air like a curse. Eliana blinked awake to the distant crackle of dying flames, the acrid sting of ash coating her throat. For a moment she didn’t remember where she was, only the ghost of blood, the echo of screams, the weight of a body falling. Then it all came rushing back. The ambush. The betrayal. Calder’s gun pressed to her temple as chaos swallowed the night. She coughed, dragging herself upright. The room was dim and unfamiliar, stone walls, rough bedding, a single lantern guttering near the door. Someone had cleaned her wounds and wrapped her arm in linen, but the ache in her ribs told her she’d been unconscious for hours, maybe days. Outside, muffled voices argued, Calder’s voice among them. That was enough to make her pulse spike. She swung her legs off the
- Writer
