Elara’s POVI spat blood into the dirt, wiped my mouth with the back of my hand, and glared up at the monster in the skin of a man I thought I knew. Elder Harrow.He looked down at me with calm cruelty, not a single hair out of place. His knuckles were smeared with my blood, his robes singed at the edges from the power I'd thrown at him earlier. But he was still standing—tall, smug, unshaken.“You disappoint me, girl,” he said smoothly, pacing in a small circle around where I lay. “All that fire, wasted on stubborn pride.”I pushed up on shaking arms, breath ragged, ribs burning like someone had lit a match under my skin. My legs trembled as I forced them beneath me, rising despite the scream in every muscle.“You were supposed to bring change,” Harrow continued. “Not rebellion.”“You were supposed to be dying in a rocking chair,” I snapped, teeth clenched, “not stabbing us in the back like a damn coward.”That earned me a vicious backhand. Stars exploded in my vision as I hit the st
Last Updated : 2025-04-18 Read more