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Chapter 83

last update Last Updated: 2025-10-09 13:59:42

Serena’s POV

“Damn it.”

The word slipped out of my mouth before I even saw her standing there. My hands were buried in the pockets of my dress nails biting into my palms as I walked down the yard, trying to breathe out the sound of the drums from the night before. I didn’t expect her to be there. Not alone. Not waiting.

But she was.

Mirah stood by the old oak at the edge of the yard like she’d grown out of the ground itself. Her arms were crossed, her head tilted just enough to make her look curious, harmless even, like she wasn’t the same woman who had turned my life into a battlefield last night. Her hair was down, blowing a little in the breeze, and that scent she always wore heavy and sweet like overripe fruit drifted toward me. It made my stomach churn.

I stopped a few feet away, my body stiff, my pulse in my throat. She smiled. Soft. Like she’d been practicing in a mirror.

“Serena,” she said, and the sound of my name in her mouth made me want to spit. “I was hoping w
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