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
My vision blurs.“That’s why you were born twins,” he says. “You were the light. She was the dark. You were meant to stabilize her. Stabilize her darkness.”His smile sharpens. “I couldn’t allow that.”The world tilts violently.“When she was about eight,” he continues, unhurried, “I found her cryin
Everything fades. The battlefield dissolves. The screams, the fire, the clash of power, everything fades until there is nothing left but memory.I’m back to years ago.The air smells different. The kind of air that belongs to a life that hasn’t been broken yet. I’m standing in my room, smiling, ligh
My vision narrows and I snarl, "I'd like to see you try."She charges and I meet her head-on.Blades of wind scream around us as we collide again, my wings beating violently as I drive her backward inch by inch. She gathers power into her palm, a dense, pulsing sphere of red energy and hurls it at m
“I’m not sure,” I answer him truthfully.Jason goes to speak, but Alec cuts him off. “We are going off-topic.”“Right,” I reply awkwardly while facing him.“Back to the premonition you had.”“Well, I thought it was a dream until Raven made me realize that it might just be a premonition,” I tell them







