chapter 137: pending

Elias barely made it to his room before his legs nearly gave out beneath him.

His breath came in sharp, uneven pulls, his body burning from the inside out. Every step had been torture, every brush of fabric against his skin unbearable.

He slumped against the door, locking it with unsteady fingers before stumbling to the nearest surface. His vision swam, his thoughts a chaotic mess.

The book—he still had it.

He forced himself to move, dragging it from beneath his cloak and slamming it onto the desk. The sound echoed in the silence, but Elias barely heard it over the pounding of his heart.

He clenched his jaw.

Focus.

He needed to focus.

To think.

To fight.

But the heat was worse now.

Unrelenting.

It curled through him, pulsing in waves that left him dizzy, feverish, desperate for relief. His clothes felt suffocating, his skin hypersensitive to every shift of fabric, every breath of air against him.

Elias dug his nails into his palms, grounding himself in the sting.

He couldn't let this consume him.

Not now.

Not when he was so close.

He forced his gaze back to the book, flipping it open with shaky hands. The pages blurred, his mind sluggish, but he pushed through.

And then—

His name.

Scrawled in ink, clear as day.

Elias – Execution Date: Pending

His breath caught.

His vision tunneled.

The world spun, but not from the drug this time.

This was it.

Proof.

This wasn't just a cycle of disappearances.

It was planned.

Calculated.

And he was next.

A shiver ran down his spine, clashing violently with the unbearable heat consuming him.

They had known.

They had been waiting.

And worse—

They had been prepared.

His fingers curled around the edges of the book, his breath shaking as the truth settled over him like a suffocating weight.

This wasn't just about survival anymore.

It was about stopping whatever game they were playing before it was too late.

For him.

For every Omega before him.