Chapter 157

Aisha POV The earth shuddered beneath my boots, splitting open with a roar that shook through my bones. For a moment, the forest was nothing but fire and noise. Heat licked at my skin, smoke coiled thick as tar, and the copper tang of scorched iron burned my throat. The blast had come too close. My ears rang, my vision blurred, and I had to blink twice before Simon’s voice cut through the haze like steel. “Aisha, move!” His hand closed around my arm, dragging me from the collapsing ridge just as flaming debris rained down. The world tilted, but the pull of his grip steadied me. Even now, with the ground buckling and the air splitting with screams, he moved with brutal certainty, as though chaos itself bent to his will. Renik was just ahead, shoving the rogue prisoner forward with the flat of his blade. I forced my lungs to draw air through the choking smoke, though each breath scalded. The forest around us was a broken carcass of charred branches and torn soil. I had fought battles bef