bChapter /bb266 /b

    Aurora’s P.O.V

    I had just begun to feel it–the power coursing through me, building with each passing moment. For the first time, I felt like I could hold my ground, like I wasn’t the naive girl I once was. Every step I took felt like it was in sync with something ancient, something vast. My hands buzzed with a quiet hum, an energy I had never experienced before, and for the first time, I felt confident. The chains of my past were starting to break, and in their ce, my true self was emerging.

    I was just about to speak, to tell Lucas and Harmona that I was done being their puppet, when it happened.

    Before I could even react, Lucas was on me, his hand shooting out like a viper’s strike. His fingers wrapped around my throat with a force that stole the air from my lungs. I gasped, my feet lifting from the ground as he held me there, suspended by his grip. His eyes, ck as the void, red into mine with an intensity that made my heart stutter. His breath was hot against my skin as he growled through gritted teeth.

    “You think you’ve won?” he hissed, his voice low, almost a whisper of venom. “You think your little burst of power means anything? We’ve been working toward this for centuries. Do you really believe you cane here and destroy everything we’ve built?”

    I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t speak. The pressure on my throat was unbearable, but somewhere deep within me, something stirred. My fingers twitched, and for the first time, I felt the pull of my power–stronger than ever. I summoned it, pushing against the suffocating grip Lucas had on me, but it barely made a dent.

    “You’re just a child,” he spat, his face inches from mine. “Barely out of diapers, and you think you’re going to ruin everything we’ve sacrificed for?”

    I struggled, my nails digging into his wrist, but my vision blurred. Everything felt heavy, the world tilting as my pulse hammered in my ears. I thought I might ck out.

    But then Harmona’s voice cut through the suffocating silence.

    9:17 Thu, Sep b4 /bG

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    “Lucas, enough,” she said, her voice calm, yetced with something sharp. I could hear the dismissiveness in her tone as she stepped forward. “So what if our n was dyed? The eclipse is still in ce, and we have a room full of people ready to die for this cause -much more than we had before.”

    Her words cut through the haze of panic in my mind, and a flicker of defiance sparked

    inside me. She was right about one thing–the eclipse was still in ce, and there were people–innocent people–waiting to die.

    “NO!” I snapped, my nails digging into Lucas’s wrist. “I w–won’t let you–h–hurt them!”

    “You think your power is enough to stop us?” Lucas growled, shaking me slightly, as

    though the mere idea was absurd. “You’re nothing. You’re just a brief flicker in the grand

    scheme of everything we’ve worked for.”

    I managed to choke out a response, though it was barely more than a rasp. “I’m more

    than you think.”

    The words tasted like fire on my tongue, like defiance and fury. I wasn’t going to let him get away with this.

    The air around me pulsed with the energy I’d been learning to harness, but it wasn’t

    enough. I needed more.

    I focused, my hands trembling as I gathered every ounce of my power, feeling it surge inside me. I reached deep, as though pulling something from the very core of the earth itself. But just as I was about to unleash it, Lucas‘ grip tightened.

    “You really think you can overpower me, little girl?” he snarled, his grip not loosening.

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