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178. The Shape I Refuse

Author: Cate_Mae
last update Last Updated: 2025-12-20 18:27:52

Albert

Pain came in waves.

Not the sharp, tearing pain I had been taught to expect, not yet, but the deep, grinding kind that curled inside my bones and dragged itself slowly across my abdomen. It tightened, eased, tightened again, as if my body were knocking on a door I refused to open.

I lay on my side on the cold stone floor, knees drawn up, arms wrapped around my stomach. The air reeked of old magic, blood, ash and herbs that had long since lost their potency but still clung to the walls like ghosts. The chamber was carved deep into the earth, roots threading through cracks in the ceiling like skeletal fingers.

I did not howl.

That was the first thing Bibi Kamwe noticed.

She circled me slowly, bare feet whispering against the stone, her bracelets chiming softly with every step. She had changed since the forest. She was now thinner, sharper and her eyes were burning with a hunger that had nothing to do with victory.

“You’re fighting it,” she said mildly. “Interesting.”

I breathed t
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