The air in the Arizona desert was like breathing smoke.
The Reapers rode in under cover of darkness — Jax in front, Lena riding behind Priest, her hands clenched around the straps of her tactical vest. She’d insisted on coming, even after the nightmares. Even after the fevers that left her shaking and sweating with images she couldn’t explain.
Something was drawing her to this place.
The Ashfall compound loomed ahead — a collection of concrete buildings half-buried into the desert, surrounded by rusted fencing and security drones that buzzed like flies.
“This is it,” Priest muttered through the comms. “No visible guards, no alarms. That smell like a trap to anyone else?”
“Smells like Gabriel,” Jax replied. “We go in, fast and silent. Take only what we need.”
“And if we find something
