66. Heartbreak

The room fell into a stunned silence as the gravity of their situation settled over them like a shroud. Stella felt her chest tighten, the weight of their actions pressing down until she could barely breathe. Declan, still dazed, stared blankly at the screen. Mason, ever the stoic one, was pale, his eyes wide with disbelief and regret.

For a long moment, no one moved or spoke. The only sound was the soft hum of the hidden chamber, the cold, clinical atmosphere in stark contrast to the chaos they had narrowly escaped above. But the knowledge that the harbingers were spreading across the city, that they had unleashed something unstoppable, hung over them like a death sentence.

“We’re responsible for this,” Stella whispered, her voice cracking. “We did this.”

Mason didn’t look at her, his gaze fixed on the screen as the shadowy figures swarmed through the streets. “We didn’t know,” he said quietly, but there was no conviction in his words. They both knew it was a hollow excuse.

Declan fi