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Chapter 65

last update Last Updated: 2025-09-13 20:49:11

The gunshot cracked through the clearing like a thunderclap.

Time slowed.

For a single heartbeat, I couldn’t breathe. My mother’s arm was still outstretched, the barrel of her pistol smoking faintly. Mira stood frozen, eyes wide, her lips parted as if she were about to speak, before her knees buckled.

“No!” I screamed, the sound ripping raw from my throat.

She crumpled to the ground, hands pressed against her side where crimson spread fast, staining her pale blouse. The betrayal I’d carried for so long burned inside me, clashing with the searing horror of watching her fall.

Why her? Why now?

“Mira!” I lurched forward instinctively, but Xavier’s weight pinned me down. His hand clutched mine weakly, his breath rasping through blood-soaked lips. “Don’t” he croaked, his eyes half-lidded, “don’t leave me…”

I froze, torn in two. Between the boy bleeding in my arms and the friend who had betrayed me yet still lay dying in front of me.

Xavier’s mother glanced at Mira briefly, her jaw tighteni
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