The Shadow Architect

Chapter 35 – Fractures Above

The silence after collapse was never truly silent. Dust shifted like ash in the air, pebbles clicked down the slopes of rubble, and the faint groans of dying stone whispered through the cavern. Adrian pushed himself up on shaking arms, every bone in his body protesting. His lungs burned with dust, his ears rang from the implosion, and his muscles felt like broken wires—but he was alive.

Barely.

Hale wasn’t.

Adrian’s hands still shook from where he’d tried—and failed—to restart his friend’s breath. His throat was raw from shouting Hale’s name into the dark. The soldier’s final words—half a smile, half a promise—still hung in the air like smoke.

For a long moment Adrian sat in the ruin of the vault, back pressed to a cracked pillar, staring at the broken man who had carried him this far. Then he reached for Hale’s rifle. His friend’s hands were still warm when he p