LOGINMy gaze sweeps across the courtyard, taking in the faces, the laughter, and the sense of peace that still feels surreal.And then my eyes find her.Xena.I can’t bring myself to call her Lola, just as she can’t bring herself to call me Sadie. To everyone else, we are Lola and Sadie but to each other
“Sadie?” Alec murmurs gently beside me, voice low and coaxing. “You ready?”I turn, and he’s there, exactly where he’s always been. Tall, steady, eyes soft in a way I once thought I’d never be on the receiving end of. He’s holding our son in his arms, swaddled in a light silver blanket that shimmers
He already knows. He always does.“Ready?” I say quietly, though everyone hears me.“Definitely… Been waiting to make you officially mine for months,” he says, earning a chuckle from everyone.Slowly, he puts Aspen down, who is smiling from ear to ear.We told her the truth, that Alec is her dad, an
The night is quiet. Not the tense quiet that comes before war, not the brittle silence of grief but a living stillness, deep and steady, like the world has finally exhaled.It has been a month since the battle. A month since blood stained this land. A month since Kaden fell. A month since I learned
Kaden sees it too late. He lunges, but we are faster.I raise my hand and time stops and light pours from me in radiant waves. Lola steps forward, shadows trailing her like smoke. Light and shadow coil around us, not fighting, but circling, choosing. The air thickens, charged, every particle vibrat
The guilt is suffocating. It crawls up my throat like it wants to rip me apart from the inside.This isn’t how it was meant to be. This isn’t how it was meant to end. Kaden wasn’t supposed to win.I wipe away the tears. No! I refuse to let her die.I feel something crack open in my chest at my deter
“You love being outside, right?” I began and waited for her to nod her head. When she does, I continue. “How would you feel if I locked you inside the house and refused to let you out?”She thought about it for a second, a cute little frown appearing between her brows. “Very bad.”“Would it make you
I woke up the next day with the name Xena still bouncing around in my head. I didn’t get it. If Nyx had blocked our emotional connection, then how come I felt that fear? Why did that name affect me the way it did? And why would Nyx be so fearful of her sister if these were really remnants of emotion
Nyx’s words keep playing in my mind like a broken record—sharp, bitter, and laced with so much hatred it felt like they cut right through my soul.I’ve tried to make sense of them, but I still can’t. She said so little, yet somehow it felt like she revealed everything. I hated that she couldn’t just
Alec.The evening mist clung to the trees like breath on glass—thick and heavy. The last light of the sun bled across the sky, casting everything in gold and shadow. My warriors moved through it like ghosts, their grunts and the sharp smack of fists against flesh breaking through the quiet. I watche







