Chapter Forty-Nine
Night settled deeper over the forest, thick and suffocating.
The enemy compound glowed like a scar carved into the darkness.
From the tree line, Lyra watched the patrol patterns carefully. Guards walked the walls in steady rotations while floodlights swept the perimeter in slow arcs.
Everything about the place screamed control.
Organization.
Preparation.
This was not something thrown together in the chaos of war.
It had been planned.
Built.
Perfected.
Beside her, Cain studied the compound with a predator’s patience.
“How many guards?” he asked quietly.
Elias answered without hesitation.
“Twenty along the walls. Another fifteen inside the perimeter.”
Lyra glanced at him.
“You counted that already?”
“I observe quickly.”
Cain muttered, “Of course you do.”
