Cindy gave her a reassuring smile, calm and steady.
And just like that, the red haze in Hera's vision began to lift. The storm in her chest calmed slightly, and the danger lurking in her eyes—the raw, unfiltered fury—slowly retreated into the shadows, waiting.
What Hera didn't realize at that moment was that the emotions surging within her weren't originally hers—they were emotions meant to ferment and take root in the heart of the villain.
She had unknowingly teetered on the edge of villainy, and if Cindy hadn't interrupted her emotional spiral, Hera might have fully crossed that line.
Had she done so, the portion of the female lead's halo she had taken from Alice would have been automatically returned, and Hera's fate would have shifted toward that of the story's villain.
