#Chapter 81 - The Calm After the Storm

Layla Eerie quiet filled the days and weeks after Aurora’s banishment—like waking up from a dream. For so long, life had been a constant go-go-go of tension, motion, action. Of plans whispered in hushed tones, buzzing phones interrupting dinners, the echo of gunfire in the distance. Of fear and heartbreak. Of pain and loss. Now, for the first time, there was silence. It rang in my ears. Hard to embrace, hard to let go of the learned responses of danger, of war. When you'd spent so long awaiting an imminent attack, it was far more challenging than I’d expected to acclimate to peace. It took days for my body to let go of the tension that had coiled my muscles for so long. For my brain to relax. For sleep to overcome me fully enough to let me rest for entire nights at a time. For weeks, I still woke suddenly in the middle of the night, listening. Certain I’d heard something. Just like it took weeks to re-learn how to sit through dinner without jolting upright at the sound o