Lahat ng Kabanata ng Crown of Betrayal: Kabanata 21 - Kabanata 24

Elora hit the ground running.No drifting into sleep, no gentle slip into another dream. One blink—one heartbeat—and she was sprinting barefoot through a forest that writhed around her like a living creature.Branches clawed at her arms. Thorns tore at her legs. Roots shifted beneath her feet, trying to trip her. The air tasted of blood and metal. The trees were the same towering shapes she had seen in every nightmare this week… but tonight, they pulsed with veins of red light, like they were alive.Behind her, something growled.Not an animal. Not a Shifter. Something older.Elora didn’t look back. She pushed harder, lungs burning, throat raw. She felt her human body faltering. Too slow. Too fragile. Whatever chased her was gaining ground, shaking the earth with every step.She needed her wolf.Her ribs cracked. Her fingers curled into claws. Her spine arched—But the shift stalled.Something was holding her human form in place, like invisible hands gripping her skin and refusing t

The Blackstone home sounded the same as it always did at dusk—boys arguing somewhere down the hall, Mrs. Blackstone reminding someone to finish a chore, the soft clatter of dishes being put away. Warm, familiar noise. The kind that had always wrapped around Elora like a safety net.Tonight, it skimmed over her without ever sinking in.She paused in the doorway of Kailee’s room, one hand gripping the frame tightly enough to sting.Kailee looked up instantly. “You look like you’re deciding whether to run or knock,” she said gently. “It’s me, Lor. You can come in.”Elora stepped inside, though her feet felt strangely heavy. The room was exactly the same—soft amber lanterns glowing on the walls, the scent of sweetgrass drifting through the cracked window, trinkets scattered across Kailee’s shelves in a way that only made sense to Kailee.Their dresses hung neatly from wooden pegs. Kailee’s was luminous gold. Elora’s was deep garnet with bronze edging that caught the light like banked fire