Chapter 53: The Mask Falls
Liora's POV
For a while after Ivy spoke, I didn't move.
Not because I couldn't, but because I needed a moment to steady everything inside me. My body was still weak, my breathing uneven from the poison, but my mind was clear in a way it hadn't been before. There was no confusion left, no second-guessing, no desperate need to explain her actions in a way that would hurt less.
I had heard her.
Every word.
And now, there was nothing left to misunderstand.
I let out a slow breath, just enough for it to shift my chest, and then I opened my eyes.
Ivy went completely still.
For a second, neither of us spoke. She was still sitting beside the bed, her hand resting lightly against my wrist, exactly where she had been pretending to check on me. But now there was no mask, no softness, no careful concern in her expression.
Just awareness.
"You're awake," she said.
