Chapter 7 — The Whisper

Chloe crossed the room slowly.

She did not run into her mother’s arms.

She did not break down.

She moved with the same unnerving calm she had carried through the corridors, one careful step after another, until she was close enough to reach her.

And then she put her small arms around her mother as gently as if Elena were made of something breakable, and for a full minute neither of them said a word.

The guards stood at the edges of the room and let the moment be, because even the hardest of them could see that whatever this was, it was sacred, and it was nearly over.