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Chapter 136

Author: Icharr writes
last update Last Updated: 2025-04-14 18:17:34

Lyla’s POV

The forest around us was silent, except for the whisper of wind brushing dead leaves against my boots.

Gabriel stood just a few feet away, his pupils dilated, absorbing everything—and nothing. His face was unreadable, but I saw it: the faintest tremor in his left hand.

He was fighting something. Or maybe someone.

“Gabriel,” I called softly, moving closer to him, “You don’t have to be what they have made you.”

His gaze flickering to the side, then back to me.

“You think I've been brainwashed,” he said. “But what if this—” he put his hand to his chest, “—is freedom? What if they showed me the truth?”

“They showed you control. Lies. Chains dressed as destiny.”

“No. They showed me what we are, Lyla.” His voice was suddenly sharp, aching with conviction. “Not victims. Not orphans. But Architects of evolution.”

He suddenly dipped his hand into his coat. My body became tense. But he only pulled out a necklace.

The other half of our mother’s coin.

He let it dangle between us.

“Do y
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