#Chapter 138: The Sound of the Gone

Lauren She was heavy in my arms. Not physically—Sophia was slight, delicate, too small to be carrying this much weight. It was the stillness. The silence. The fact that someone who had never stopped talking, never stopped fighting, never stopped being difficult… wasn’t breathing anymore. I stared at her face—her lips slightly parted, blood trailing from the corner of her mouth, those big, expressive eyes half-lidded and empty. The dagger stuck out from her chest like a cruel joke. It didn’t even look real. “You were tired of being you?” I whispered, shaking. “You’re just gonna leave me with that? Really? After everything?” But she didn’t answer. Because she was gone. The tent blurred around me, the walls of smoke and fire and blood closing in. My ears rang. My heart pounded. Somewhere in the distance, someone was screaming. It was mourning, low. Someone I recognized. And then—I heard him. The Rogue King. Laughing. A deep, echoing sound that felt like it came f