Elara’s POVFor one long second after Ruin’s words, I could not breathe. The vent corridor suddenly felt too narrow, too small for the panic that rushed through me. Viktor had never wanted a clean exchange, because the sacrificed territory was never enough. He wanted Ruin trapped in surrendered ground, Axel cut off inside the locked dock gates, and me isolated with Mila in the maintenance corridors.He had turned the city itself into a battlefield, and the war had reached its climax.I gripped the comm tighter. “Ruin, listen to me.”Gunfire thundered through the line, followed by the sharp metallic scream of heavy dock machinery shifting.He was already moving. “Get Mila out through the upper vent routes,” he said.“What about Axel?”A pause, then his answer came with a grim certainty that made my stomach twist. “I am going back for him.”Of course he was.Ruin would never leave one of his own behind, not after sacrificing half his empire to keep the rest alive.“You cannot fight thro
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