Chapter 149

ELIZA'S POV The desert wind bit at my face as I crouched low near the patrol camp’s outer ring. I’d only been with the Dune Kingdom’s border patrol for ten days, and already my limbs ached from the heat, the forced marches, and the drills. I was appointed as head of the patrol units. I wasn't here to be one of them. I was here for Isabella. And if pretending to be a loyal tracker meant bleeding my hands raw, earning every ounce of their trust, and walking among executioners with a frozen smile—I would do it. The Dune Kingdom doesn’t ask. It tells. That’s how I ended up walking with a patrol unit. They called it a “provisional recruitment”—which really meant, we don’t trust you yet. I could feel it in their eyes, in the way their hands stayed near their weapons. One wrong move and they’d bury me right here in the sand. So I kept my head down. Helpful, but not pushy. Curious, but not nosy. Just useful enough to keep around. If you want to survive, you learn to blend in. The patrol was ti