Novels by PENNY A

~~~Aurelia POV~~~I didn't stop running until the cottage came into view.My legs were shaking. My head felt stuffed with cotton, and something warm was dripping over my lip. I touched it, and my fingers came away red.Great. A nosebleed.I leaned against the garden gate and tried to breathe. The cold had settled deep in my bones, like someone had scooped the heat out of me and poured it onto the ground. Whatever I had done in that alcove, it hadn't been free.That girl's blank stare kept flashing in my mind. That slack hand.Let go.And she had.I pressed my sleeve to my nose and pushed the gate open.----Aunt Kathy was at the table sorting dried herbs into jars. She looked up when I walked in, and the jar in her hand stopped halfway to the shelf."Hazel.""I'm fine.""You're bleeding.""It's just a nosebleed."She crossed the kitchen in three steps and caught my wrist. Her eyes dropped to my palm, to the thin red line the metal clasp had left, and went very still."Did you use it?"

~~~Aurelia POV~~~"Hazel! Hazel, wait!"I had barely stepped through the school gates when something small and fast crashed into my side."You waved at me," Daisy said, grinning up at me, curls bouncing. "You actually waved back yesterday. Did you finally crawl out of your shell? Usually you just do this tiny nod and pretend you're invisible."I blinked. "Did I?""Every single day. Like I'm going to tell on you." She hooked her arm through mine and dragged me toward the steps. "Come on. I saved you a seat in herbology. And if you say no, I'll tell Uncle Ravik you're being mean to me."I almost tripped."You wouldn't.""Try me." She laughed. "He'd just stare at you until you apologized. He does that to the whole court. It's terrifying."I laughed with her before I could stop myself.It felt strangely warm. Daisy talked the way other people breathed, never pausing, her stories tumbling over each other. Which teacher was secretly afraid of the sea. Which boy got caught kissing the headma

~~~Aurelia POV~~~I woke up gasping.My hand flew to my stomach before I even opened my eyes.Flat and empty.No. No, no, no.A sob ripped out of my throat, raw and ugly. I curled onto my side, clutching the blanket like it could hold the pieces of me together. My baby. I had felt that tiny life only hours ago, and now there was nothing.Wait.Blanket?I froze. The Abyss was cold stone, venom and blood. This was soft linen, warm sunlight, and the faint smell of salt.I opened my eyes.A low wooden ceiling. Seashells strung on twine by the window, clinking in the breeze. A narrow bed, a crooked shelf of herbs, a chipped mirror leaning against the wall.I was alive.That was impossible."Hazel!" a woman's voice called from downstairs. "If you're not up in five minutes, you'll be late for school again!"Hazel?I sat up too fast and my head spun. Then I looked at my hands.They were wrong. Smaller, slimmer, the skin a shade darker. A thin silver scar curled across one knuckle.These weren

~~~Aurelia POV~~~Did I look okay?I checked my reflection for the fifth time. Pale blue gown, hair pinned back, one hand pressed against my stomach like the tiny life inside might vanish if I stopped touching it."Relax, Aurelia," I muttered. "You're just telling your husband he's going to be a father."My husband. The Alpha.Three years of marriage and I still couldn't say it without my heart tripping over itself.Three years of the pack whispering behind my back, too. The witch's daughter. My mother was the Soulspun witch who broke the demon goddess's curse and freed every one of them, then died for it. Did anyone thank her? No. They just looked at me, her magicless daughter, like I was something that might stain their boots.I swallowed every whisper anyway. Because Draven had chosen me. In front of the whole pack, on the day he claimed me as his mate.And today, I was going to give him something no one else could.An heir."Aurelia!"The door flew open and Cordelia swept in like