ZAHRA-ROSE
The rumor was spreading too fast.
I first heard it last night while I was taking Eira for a run. It hit me so hard I nearly lost my footing, my breath knocking out of my lungs as if someone had struck me from behind.
At first, I dismissed it. Maybe they had caught my scent as we came running and decided to spin another meaningless story, something to rattle me, to hurt me.
Or so I thought.
Now, sitting across from my sister at the dinner table while she chatted endlessly about her day, I couldn’t stop replaying the whispers in my head. The looks being thrown our way only confirmed it. Every bowed head, every averted gaze, it was all there.
They had heard it too.
“Are you even listening to me?”
Maliah dropped her spoon, the sharp clink snapping me out of my thoughts.
“O
