Chapter 34: Whispered Warnings and the Echo of Rage

The whisper had stopped.

But the silence that followed wasn't silence.

It was charged.

With purpose.

With intent.

Leya did not lie well once the voice had stopped—her body outstretched on the bed, back tense against the headboard, every hair on her arms bristling not due to fear, but due to awareness.

Not every step is a threat.

But there are warnings.

And the one that had named her tonight. It hadn't been trying to scare her.

It had been trying to communicate something.

That she was still being watched.

And perhaps—perhaps—that someone still cared that she was worth at least something.

That cut deeper at her chest than splintered ribs.

She wrapped the blanket tighter around herself, seething an angry glare at where the door had existed once in the darkness.

Someone had whispered her name as if it still held meaning.

And that was what disturbed her most.

Because it meant there was someone in this house who still thought she was worth whispering about.

And that? That m