Page 142 of Bound to the Dreadlord

I did what I had to do.

To stop my father. To end the war. To end Hazeran and his cruelty.

But at what cost?

"You think I am still the same girl you stole from that cage?"she asks, tilting her head, studying me the way a predator studies something beneath it."Tell me, Veylan—what do you see when you look at me now?"

I do not have an answer because she is not the same.

She is something more.

Something less.

Something new.

I swallow, hating the way my throat tightens.

"I see you."

Her lips twitch, a cruel, bitter mockery of a smile."You don’t. Not anymore."

Her fingers twitch at her sides, and I feel the pulse of power, thick and volatile, a dark hum slithering through the air between us.

I created this.

I broke her. And now I am watching as she chooses to leave.

Not in body. But in spirit. By heart.

"You should rest,"I say at last, my voice low, steady. Useless.

She exhales sharply, shaking her head."Rest?"Her laugh is dry, humorless."I don’t think I remember how."

I step forward. This time, she does move.

She steps back. It’s a sharp, deliberate retreat.

One that cuts deeper than any dagger.

"Sera."

"Don’t."

She does not raise her voice. She does not need to.

The gap between us feels like a battlefield all its own.

She looks at me one last time, and it is the last time.

Then she turns and walks away.

53

SERA

Iwalk.

One step.

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