Lady Elira

Rain lashes my face like needles as I claw my way up the final embankment, mud slick beneath my palms. My lungs burn—not from exhaustion, but from the sheer relief of it. Open air. Sky. Not stone pressing in on me from every side.

I haul myself onto the forest trail and roll onto my back, rain soaking instantly through my clothes. Camille emerges beside me moments later, water streaming from his hair, his chest heaving.

For a long second, neither of us speaks. Thunder rolls overhead, deep and furious, rattling the canopy above like the sky itself is at war.

We’re finally out.

No more underground tunnels....