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Chapter 42: Dominion Guard
The rain had not stopped since the night they fled the Spiral Vault. Velaria’s streets gleamed under the orange haze of the lamp posts, gutters running black with the city’s filth. Dante had kept them moving in silence, avoiding main roads, doubling back on themselves so many times that even Lira’s uncanny sense of direction seemed muddled. Aria stayed close to him, her hood drawn low, her eyes shadowed with something heavier than fatigue.
By the time they reached the edge of Old Velaria’s industrial ward, the air shifted. It wasn’t just the cold—there was a weight to it, an oppressive hum that made the hair on the back of Dante’s neck stand on end. Lira noticed too. She stopped mid-step, one hand braced against a brick wall slick with rain.
“You feel that
