If you’ve ever had one of those mornings where the universe seems to have forgotten your existence, let me tell you—mine had it beat by a landslide. My ribs ached like they’d been used as a battering ram. The sky looked like it had been scorched by a cosmic blowtorch, and my internal beast—the one that wasn’t supposed to be real, let alone awake—was pacing like a caged animal, itching to rip something apart. Again.
But I wasn’t going to let that happen. Not this time.
Adrian stood beside me, jaw clenched and eyes scanning the broken skyline ahead. Smoke billowed from collapsed towers, casting a gray haze that turned the sun into a dim orange eye glaring down at us. The air reeked of sulfur, charred metal, and something far worse—blood. Lots of it.
We weren’t just in a city under siege—w
