Lahat ng Kabanata ng THE REJECTED LUNA IS BACK : Kabanata 11 - Kabanata 17

CAMILA If someone had told me this was what peace looked like, I might have believed them. The day began like any other. The bell echoed through the academy halls, magic humming faintly in the air as students filtered into their classes. I took my seat by the window, sunlight warming my desk, my notes already neatly arranged. No paper was thrown. No whispers followed me in. No sharp laughter brushed against my ears. Normal. Liliana arrived moments later, greeting me with a smile that looked effortless. “Good morning, Camila,” she said, her tone light. “Did you finish the rune translation assignment?” “I did,” I replied, surprised at how easily the words came out. “It was harder than I expected.” She laughed softly. “It always is.” Sebastian came in shortly after, drawing attention without meaning to. Wolves straightened unconsciously when he passed. A few students nodded in respect. Others simply watched him with open admiration. He stopped beside Liliana’s desk first. “You

CAMILA I learned very quickly that rumors do not fade. They grow. By the next morning, the academy felt different again. Not louder—quieter. The kind of quiet that followed me, pressed close to my back, leaned into my ears. Conversations stopped when I approached. Laughter softened into coughs and murmurs. Eyes slid away too fast or lingered too long. I kept my head down and walked. In history class, my seat felt farther from the others than it had the day before. The desk beside me remained empty, even when the room filled. When the professor called my name to answer a question, the silence afterward stretched too long, thick with something unspoken. I answered anyway. My voice didn’t shake. I made sure of that. A few students exchanged looks. Someone snorted quietly. The professor nodded once and moved on without comment, as though nothing unusual had happened. As though I hadn’t felt stripped bare under every gaze. By midday, the weight in my chest made it hard to breathe

CAMILA I don’t remember when my feet stopped following the path. One moment I was running—branches clawing at my sleeves, stones cutting into the soles of my shoes, my lungs burning as if they might collapse—and the next, the academy lights were gone behind me, swallowed by the dark stretch of forest ahead. I didn’t stop. I couldn’t. The woods opened around me like a mouth, deep and endless, trees towering so high they blocked the moonlight. The air smelled damp and sharp, filled with moss and pine and something wild that made my skin prickle. My legs finally gave out near a fallen log. I stumbled forward and collapsed to my knees, hands sinking into cold earth. My chest hitched as sobs tore out of me, ugly and broken, nothing like the quiet tears I’d learned to swallow at the academy. I cried like I had nowhere left to run. My head throbbed with voices. Dirty human girl. Delusional. As if he’d ever look at her. I pressed my palms over my ears, but it didn’t help. The lau

CAMILA No one mentioned what happened yesterday. Not in whispers loud enough for me to hear. Not in pointed accusations. Not even in pitying looks meant to cut deeper than cruelty. It was as if the academy had collectively decided to erase it—to fold the incident neatly away and pretend it had never happened. That, somehow, was worse. The morning air was cool when I stepped into the main hall, my shoes echoing softly against the stone floor. Students clustered in their usual groups—wolves laughing too loudly, fairies flitting past in bursts of color, witches murmuring over spellwork. Everything looked the same. Too normal. I kept my head down, fingers tightening around the strap of my bag. My body still ached in places I couldn’t explain, a dull soreness lingering beneath my skin like a bruise I couldn’t see. Every time I inhaled too deeply, my chest tightened faintly, as if remembering something my mind refused to touch. Eyes followed me. They always did. Some stares were cu