Chapter 83 Foreshadowing

• Zinnia
• The night pressed against the windows, heavy and unyielding. I crouched behind the reinforced wall, every nerve taut, my hands twitching at the edges of the traps and weapons Hermine had helped set up. Reed’s presence beside me was steady, grounding, but even his calm didn’t soothe the tension crawling along my spine. My wrists throbbed from earlier, bruised and raw, but the pain was almost comforting, it reminded me that I was still alive, still capable of action.
• Hermine’s fingers danced across her tablet, monitoring sensors, reading heat signatures, and calculating every possible approach outside. “They’re close,” she whispered. Her voice was calm, but the subtle tremor betrayed her worry. “Too close for to be laying around.”