Chapter 128

Zarek's POV

I blinked, disoriented, as the haze of pain and memory slowly receded. The dark whirlpool in my mind, the screams I'd been drowning in, softened, replaced by something warmer, sharper… alive.

Elara was there, standing in the dim light, her presence cutting through the storm in my chest. Not a step back, not a flicker of disgust, not the faintest hesitation. She hadn't run, hadn'