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Chapter 53 — Helena's POV

Author: Ivy Crane
last update publish date: 2026-10-25 23:37:34

Chapter 53 — Helena's POV

"You're asking me to build a cage and call it a gift."

I had been twenty-six when she said it, standing in the kitchen of her little stone cottage with flour on her hands and a pot of something simmering on the stove. She hadn't raised her voice. She never did. She only looked at me with those steady, mournful eyes, and I felt, for the first time in our friendship, like a stranger.

"It isn't a cage," I'd said. "It's protection. You of all people understand what's comin
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