Chapter 273

AURELIA’S POV Boredom arrived first. Then the fury. At first, the house was strange enough to distract me—the gleaming kitchen, the soft bed, the illusion of safety. But soon the silence pressed too tightly, smothering me like a blanket I couldn’t shake off. No voices. No footsteps. Just me and the hum of the refrigerator, the flicker of the television I refused to turn on. I had checked every corner of the house, searching for cracks in this perfect facade. The doors were reinforced. The windows barred. Even the vents were too small, designed like traps. Whoever had placed me here had thought of everything. Almost everything. Because they didn’t know me. They didn’t know what it meant to be Aurelia. I’d spent years locked in invisible cages, bowing my head, swallowing my words, letting Seraphina’s venom drip over me until it nearly poisoned me whole. I had endured and endured. But something inside me had broken free since the night I shifted again. Something raw and furious that no ba