POV ESMERAY
The shed at the edge of the desert camp was a place where hope went to die. It was a small, corrugated metal structure that hummed with the heat of the day and groaned with the chill of the night. Now, it echoed with the sound of a man's ragged breathing and the steady, terrifying drip of water from a rusted pipe. Inside, the air was thick with the scent of old oil and new fear.
Ruan stood in the center of the room, his shadow stretched long and jagged against the wall by the light of a single, swinging bulb. He hadn't washed the blood from the battle off his face. It had dried into dark streaks that made him look like a vengeful god. Across from him, tied to a heavy wooden chair, was the prisoner"a Viper named Gnash, whose bravado had vanished the moment Ruan's hands h
