Chapter 124: What She Chose
And so, the fire had gone quiet, not because it was dead but because everything around it had finally stopped fighting.
What remained was breath, pain, movement, and the long echo of what had just ended.
Aidan worked without hesitation. He moved through the mountain like the man had memorized it in another life.
His team came in fast and controlled, weapons lowered only once it was clear there was no one left standing who could hurt anyone again.
Bodies were restrained. Fires were put out. Doors were opened, and that chanting room turned into something else entirely, stripped of its power the moment the women were told to lift their heads and move.
Danielle stayed on her feet through all of it. She did not let herself sit.
The moment Argash fell and the hold loosened, something inside her hardened instead of breaking.
She helped the women first.
Not because they asked, but because they were unfamiliar with the process or the outside world.
