Elara’s POVThe moment Viktor said it, I felt the trap settle into place around me. His voice carried no urgency, no strain, and no doubt. He spoke as if he had already seen how this would end, as if every possible outcome had been weighed and reduced to a single, unavoidable choice.I stood still, but inside me everything moved at once.The child sat in the center of the room, small hands bound, eyes wide, but not crying. There was fear there, but there was also something else, something that should not have been present in someone that young. In awareness and recognition.The kind that made my chest tighten for reasons I did not want to name yet.Ruin stepped slightly forward, and I could feel the shift in him even without looking directly at his face. He was not hesitating, but he was measuring everything, calculating angles, exits, timing, distance, and threat.Axel remained behind us, his attention split between the sealed door and the space above, as if he expected something to
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