C229 CHOICE THAT WAS NEVER HERS

Aria did not feel the danger all at once.

It came slowly — the kind that creeps in when the world grows too quiet, when even your own breathing sounds wrong in your ears. The Blood Court had gone still, not frozen, not shocked, just… listening. As though something beneath the stone floor had shifted, and everyone knew better than to move before it finished turning.

Elara noticed first