Isla’s POV
Everything stopped.
Not slowed. Not quieted.
Stopped.
The elders’ mouths hung open mid-sentence. Lady Vance’s hand was frozen in the air, fingers curled like she was about to claw someone’s eyes out. Sera’s face was locked in a snarl, lips peeled back, eyes blazing with hate that would never reach me now. Alpha Elias stood half-risen from his chair, mouth open in the shape of a word he never finished saying. Soran’s arm was outstretched toward me, fingers splayed, caught in the moment he’d lunged to grab me. Cairo gripped the table edge so hard his knuckles were white—frozen there.
Even the fire in the hearth had paused. Flames hung motionless like orange glass sculptures. A fly that had been drifting lazily near the window was suspended mid-wingbeat, wings spread, legs tuc
