Chapter 48
Nina’s POV
The sirens wailed closer now, a distant howl cutting through the pandemonium like a promise that might never arrive. Red and blue lights pulsed through the high windows, casting erratic shadows across the marble floor, turning the chaos into a strobe-lit nightmare.
The countdowns ticked in unison—2:00, 1:59—each number glowing brighter on the pillar's display, wires humming with a faint, ominous vibration that I could feel in my bones. Isabella and Josh stood there, too calm, too still amid the stampede, their faces illuminated in the red glare like demons in hellfire.
“Are you so evil that you wouldn’t mind dying just for money, power, and politics?” I shouted, my voice raw and cracking over the screams. My heart pounded so hard it blurred my vision, but I co
