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
I had noticed the shift in Brian way before he did. There was just something about him when I was turning that I didn’t like. He didn’t ooze off bad vibes like the rest and that’s just not what I was looking for in my army. I didn’t want some goody-two-shoes.There was one like him. The first one I
AlecI step aside but don’t go far. I could feel the charged air around us, but that wasn’t my main concern. No. It was the woman curled into a ball, looking like her whole world had been upended.I hated seeing her like this. I hated seeing the pain in her eyes. I wanted to do everything to help he
“Who are the two girls?” I ask, fearing the answer she’ll give.“Me and my sister,” she whispers, brokenly.The air gets stuck in my throat as the words strike my already battered heart in a way I don’t understand. There is something just on the surface, but before I can fully grasp what it is, it d
“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







