Chapter 175. Night We Dreamt

Xerina’s POV

The night stretched on, but sleep felt like a distant memory. I paced inside the tent, the weight of Rasmus’s words pressing down on my chest. My mind was reeling, consumed by the enormity of it all—the mark, Valeria, the war. Every breath felt heavier than the last. How had it come to this? How had we allowed everything to spiral so far out of control?

I stared at the small re burning in the center of the tent, its embers flickering against the cold wind that seeped through the aps. My arms wrapped around myself, the chill settling into my bones, though it wasn’t the cold that bothered me. It was the uncertainty.

The realization that Rasmus had kept something so monumental from me sent a fresh wave of anger through my veins. But it wasn’t just the anger. Beneath that, a deeper emotion roiled—a sense of betrayal. He had held this truth, this secret, and wielded it like a weapon without my knowledge. And now, now that we were fighting for surviva