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Three Days of Quiet Before the Crown

Penulis: Magdeleina Thomson
last update Terakhir Diperbarui: 2025-12-15 03:24:00

Samantha POV

The three days before the Council felt unreal.

Like the world had paused—not out of kindness, but anticipation.

Brenda stayed quiet. Too quiet. No flickering jokes. No sarcastic hums in the walls. Just a low, constant awareness, like the house itself was holding its breath.

Lucien trained me every night.

Not brutally. Not relentlessly.

Carefully.

As if he was afraid of pushing me too far—physically, emotionally, or otherwise.

We practiced control more than power.

How to ground myself when the ring pulsed too strongly.

How to redirect energy without letting it explode outward.

How to breathe when fear wanted to take the wheel.

“You do not fight power,” Lucien told me on the second night, as we stood barefoot in the grass beneath a moonless sky. “You negotiate with it.”

“Story of my life,” I muttered.

He almost smiled.

During the day, we stayed inside. Not because of him—because of me.

I couldn’t focus.

Every quiet moment left room for my thoughts to spiral back to my old l
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