Alexander’s POV

My world had been torn apart, unraveling like threads slipping through my fingers. The absence of Sophia was a void that gnawed at my insides, an ache that refused to be ignored. Anger roared within me, a fiery tempest that threatened to consume everything in its path. My voice was a command, an eruption of pent-up frustration that reverberated through the shadow city.

"Lock down the city," I ordered, my words laced with an intensity that mirrored the storm within. "No one gets in or out until we find her."

The chaos that ensued was a reflection of my own turmoil. The city, once a bastion of order,...