AvelineThe night air tasted of earth and fear.I slipped through the servant’s corridor behind Mila, our footsteps feather-light against the stone floor. My heart pounded so loud, I was certain it would draw every guard in the compound. Every creak of wood or distant howl in the night made me flinch. I clutched my satchel tighter to my chest—water, a makeshift map, a knife, and the last of my courage.Mila didn’t speak as she guided me past the Omega quarters and into the overgrown greenhouse. Her eyes flicked in every direction. She moved like a shadow—quick, careful, quiet. We were running on borrowed time, and both of us knew it.She crouched behind a tangle of ivy and rusted iron, where an old grate was half-hidden beneath years of plant decay. “This is it,” she whispered, pulling it free with a low groan of metal. “The tunnel’s narrow and damp, but it leads out past the perimeter wall. We used it once during a supply raid years ago, before Matteo took over.”I stared at the dark
Last Updated : 2025-06-29 Read more