Chapter 186

The silence that followed was not empty.

It was loaded.

Selena’s hand remained suspended in the air, fingers still curled from the snap that should have ended this. Her eyes searched Kaia’s face—not for fear, not for defiance, but for permission.

She didn’t find it.

“You don’t understand what you’re refusing,” Selena said at last, her voice tightening. “This power doesn’t vanish because you say no. It moves. It feeds. It finds the weakest place to ...