The man shifted slightly, eyes glinting. “Time is short. You have to decide. One move. One choice. Do it right, or you lose more than you know.”
Jackson stepped forward, fog curling around his boots, carrying with it the weight of the past. Mara remained behind him, silent and poised, a partner in the storm he had never fully trusted himself to face.
“You think you’re ready,” the man said, voice low, deliberate, a calm before a storm. “But are you? Are you ready to face what you’ve left behind?”
