Chapter 134

Sofia. Every breath I took felt like a struggle, as though I couldn’t quite fill my lungs with enough air. The room felt smaller than it should have. The air thicker like a gloomy fog setting over me. I paced, walking back and forth along the hall, running my hands through my hair in frustration. The quiet had become unbearable. The silence that once felt like solace now felt like an invisible weight pushing down on me. I wasn’t sure what I was waiting for, or what I even wanted to happen. But I knew I couldn’t stay still—not after Nikolai’s words, not after everything I had seen, everything I had felt. The door to the room where Arsen lay was cracked open. I could see the dim light from the hallway spill inside, casting shadows across the floor, the walls, the bed where he lay. I had been avoiding it all night, but now, I couldn’t stay away any longer. With slow, deliberate steps, I crossed the threshold and stepped inside. Arsen still looked like he was drifting between life and deat