*~ Author's POV~*
Hazel sat still for a long moment. Her wrists throbbed against the iron cuffs, skin red and raw from struggling. The silence between her and Lilith hung thick—dense like a fog that refused to lift.
Then suddenly… she laughed.
Not softly. Not bitterly.
She chuckled—a loud, eerie, hollow sound that echoed off the stone walls of the chamber. It was jarring, out of place. It didn't belong to the Hazel who used to tremble under pressure. This was something… colder.
"So," she said through the lingering laugh, "you wiped my father's love for me. Just… erased it like a bad chapter in a book."
Lilith flinched, stepping back a little.
Hazel tilted her head. Her smile didn't reach her eyes. "You made him forget me. And for what? For safety? For some prophecy you won't even explain?" Her voice dropped, low and sharp. "Was it worth it?"
Lilith opened her mouth. "Hazel, I—"
"Don't." Hazel cut her off, voice like steel. "Don't say you did it out of love."
