Kael
The next step didn’t hold.
I knew it the second my weight shifted forward. My leg tried to take it, tried to lock and stabilize the way it had been, but something gave under the pressure. Pain shot through me, sharp enough to steal the air from my lungs before I could brace for it.
I caught myself before I fully went down, but it cost me.
Everything tightened at once—my chest, my grip on the chain, the last bit of control I had been holding together through sheer force of will. For a moment, I just stood there, breathing through it, waiting for the surge to pass.
It didn’t.
It lingered, deeper now, heavier. Not the sharp, immediate kind anymore, but something worse. The kind that settled in and stayed, dragging at every movement, every breath, every thought.
Behind me, Brent s
