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Chapter 13

Author: Brandi Rae
last update publish date: 2026-04-28 03:12:21

The silence did not hold; it shifted. Not all at once, but enough.

A whisper, too quiet to form words, brushed through the edges of the crowd. Then another. The sound spread in uneven ripples, restrained but impossible to fully suppress.

Something had gone wrong, and everyone knew it.

Elara felt it before she heard it, the change in pressure, the way attention loosened from its rigid stillness and began to move again. Not away from her.

Around her.

Like something circling.

Her shoulders tensed
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