Chapter 55 It Is Time

• Darius
• It was the dead of night when the knock came, loud and frantic, as if the world was ending on the other side of my door.
• At first, I thought I was imagining it. I had been tossing and turning in my bed, my thoughts consumed with Anastasia—her words, her pain, the way I had nearly lost her. Sleep had been far from me, but even through the haze of exhaustion, the sound of knuckles pounding against the heavy door felt wrong.