Chapter 57: Kade’s POV

The mist was so thick I could taste it. Cold, damp, and heavy, it clung to my skin like a curse as Axel and I crouched near the edge of the forest, right where the junkyard met the old border trail. The same place I told Nyra to find me before dawn.

The hour before sunrise had always felt unnatural to me. It wasn’t quite night, but it wasn’t morning either. It was that breathless space between endings and beginnings, and tonight, it felt like the world itself was ...