Jill’s pov
The rear laundry chute was icy, the rusted metal scraping against my knees as I wiggled through the narrow shaft into the lower cellar.
I hit the stone floor in a quiet crouch, keeping my gray cloak wrapped tight around my shoulders to hide the mud stains from the ravine. The entire Red Moon estate was vibrating with a chaotic, suffocating tension. Torchlight flickered wildly against the stone corridor walls, and the distant, heavy thud of iron boots echoed from the main entrance hall.
Nash’s voice boomed down the staircase, rough and raw with pure, unhinged rage.
"Expand the search grid to the western ridge!" Nash roared, the Alpha command vibrating through the floorboards beneath my boots. "If Fernando’s scouts are holding the river crossing, cut them down!"
"Alpha, the m
