C89 Blood on the Altar

Ariana didn’t sleep after dawn. She felt the shift in the air before the knock came—that silent pull in the chest that told her something had already gone wrong outside these walls. She sat up slowly, careful not to wake Demion, but his eyes opened the moment she moved.

He didn’t ask why.

He heard it too—the stillness that meant bad news.

The knock came hard. Urgent. No hesitation