Author Calypso의 작품

ASHERWhat has this girl done to me?The moment her hands touched me, something shifted. My pulse jumped—fast and hard—like I’d just been thrown into a fight. But this isn’t adrenaline. It’s something worse. Something deeper.Something I don’t know how to fight off.Being near her, under this moonlit sky, with her hands on me, her voice soft and her eyes calm… it makes everything feel lighter. Like the weight on my chest has finally loosened. Like I can breathe for the first time in weeks.But the second she says the word mother, it’s like the world slams back into place. The spell shatters. My body locks up, rigid. I take a step back, then another. I don’t look at her—I look at the sky, at the stars that don’t care what I am or what I’ve done.The silence between us stretches. Tight. Loud.Then she says it—softly. Like my name is something fragile. “Asher.”I close my eyes. Her voice does something to me. She says my name like it matters. Like I matter.I don’t deserve that.“Are you

ALTHEAThere’s a stone in my shoe. The same one that’s been there for the past ten minutes, but my legs are too busy running for me to be able to stop to do anything about it. We finally stop running once we’re a safe distance from the bar and seem to have lost our pursuers. We collapse against a tree and Asher finally lets go of my hand. My body protests against the loss of contact, and I wrap my arms around my body to keep my hands occupied. I look at Asher, finding his eyes already trained on me so intently that I swallow before asking. “So what now?”His expression is blank. “The palace.”“Well, that was…” I sputter trying to find the right word.“Stupid?”“Fascinating.” I finish instead.He heaves a sigh before muttering, “You’re always making things difficult for me, aren’t you?”I don’t answer, as I finally pull off my shoe and shake off the offending stone. I can feel Asher’s eyes on me as I slip my shoe back on. When he sees I have no intention of giving him a response, he

ASHERA fist skims past my face, barely brushing my cheek. I duck just in time, feeling the air stir against my skin as another swing comes for me. My muscles move before I think. Quick. Sharp. I step sideways, dodging the blow with ease.I can’t help the smirk tugging at my lips. Finally—an opponent who’s not a complete joke.Bouncing lightly on my feet, I watch him throw another punch. Sloppy. Too much power, not enough control. My blood thrums under my skin, the familiar rush of adrenaline flooding through me. This is what I live for. Not the politics. Not the endless, fake smiles. This.I catch his wrist mid-air, twisting it. He grunts in pain. Before he can recover, I slam my fist into his stomach. Hard.He stumbles back, gasping, but I don’t give him time to breathe. I move fast, colliding into him with my shoulder. We crash to the ground, a heavy thud echoing through the open pit.The crowd roars around us, but I barely hear them. My knee presses into his ribs as I pin him down

ALTHEAThere are eight of us left now.Only eight.And still, I feel like I’m unraveling.I sit on the edge of my bed, fingers tangled in the thick blanket, staring at nothing. Before we were dismissed to our rooms, I and the other girls had been in the grand hall, whispering about who made it and who didn’t. Now alone, I’m somewhere else.Back in the maze.Back in front of that mirror, where my father looked up at me with eyes that weren’t his—cold, sharp, disappointed. You betrayed us. The words echo, even though he never said them aloud. Even though it was just an illusion.But it didn’t feel like a lie.What if he’s right?What if I have betrayed them—my family, my people, myself?By being here?By surviving?By letting the king turn me into one of his toys?I tell myself I don’t want the crown. I don’t want power. That I’m here to survive. To find out the truth. To stay alive long enough to make something right.But the mirror didn’t lie. It showed me things I never wanted to adm

ALTHEAThe gates creak open at dusk and all of us make our way out. We’d been woken up from our sleeps less than an hour ago, and told that the king had a new task for us. He wanted us to conquer the maze of mirrors. The maze stands before us like something torn from a nightmare—tall walls of glass and mirror, reflecting the fading light in a thousand twisting, fractured ways. The guards usher us forward with unreadable faces. The king’s voice cuts above the silence.“Make it out before dawn,” he says. “Or don’t make it out at all.”No one laughs. We all know he isn’t joking about it. And if anything, he’s proven to us that he could care less about any of us.I step through the archway last. The air inside the maze is cool and still, and every surface gleams like ice. I catch glimpses of myself in the mirrors on either side—tired eyes, tight jaw, hands clenched at my sides.The path splits into three directions. Each one looks exactly the same.I take the left.At first, it’s quiet.

ALTHEAIt’s been hours since the photoshoot ended.I’ve been pacing my room ever since, the soft rug muffling my footsteps. The dress is long gone—stuffed into the corner like it wronged me personally. My hair’s a mess, my hands won’t stop shaking, and my stomach’s been in knots the entire time.Asher didn’t come back.He left with the soldier, heading straight to wherever they were keeping the captured revolutionary. And now he’s either still with him… interrogating him. Or worse. Torturing him.Or maybe, maybe it’s already over. Maybe the interrogation happened quickly, and now they know everything. Maybe Asher already knows that I used to run messages for Aaron. That I knew about the safehouses. That I knew this attack was part of the plan. That I was one of them.Maybe they’re just waiting for the right moment to barge in. Drag me out in chains. Or worse.I sit on the edge of the bed, gripping the bedsheets tight enough that my knuckles go white. The sun outside fades slowly into