Chapter 35 The Echo's Price

Elena POV The safehouse feels like a cage at dawn, its stone walls too close, the air stale with the lingering scent of ash and blood from last night’s fight. I’m up before the others, my blade already in hand, pacing the small room as the first light creeps through the cracked shutters. My arm’s a map of bruises, the green veins from the hunters’ touch faded but not forgotten, a dull ache that keeps me sharp. We survived—barely—but survival’s a thin thread, and I’m not fool enough to think it’s holding.