The roar of the burning relay station echoed across the valley long after Nora pulled me into the night. But inside those collapsing walls, Adrian and Kael were not dead yet.
Adrian’s lungs burned with smoke, the air thick with ash. The firefight had devolved into chaos—shadows moving through firelight, muzzle flashes strobing the dark. He pressed his back against the console, coughing hard, vision swimming. His rifle was nearly empty.
Beside him, Kael was still firing, wild and unrelenting. Blood soaked his side, but rage seemed to keep him upright, each shot a curse, a vow, a defiance.
“They’re pulling back,” Adrian rasped, straining to hear over the crackle of fire. “Regrouping for another push.”
Kael spat blood into the ash. “Good. Saves me the trouble of chasing them.”
“You’re bl
