Ellie’s POV
The training ground was quiet, I mean too quiet. The silence pressed down on me like a heavy hand, broken only by the scrape of my boots dragging across the dirt and the sharp rhythm of my own ragged breaths. My lungs burned with every inhale, the fire spreading into my chest, but I refused to stop. Not now. Not tonight.
Sweat slicked my temples and trailed down the curve of my jaw, stinging when it slipped into my eyes, blurring the edges of the world around me. My arms ached from hours of drills, every muscle trembling with the strain, but I tightened my grip on the training blade until my knuckles went white.
I had to keep moving.
If I stopped, the weight of everything—the betrayal, the whispers, and the threat of Wesley’s lies would crash down on me like a tidal wave. A
