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
“So, you’re telling me that what we thought was a premonition… was actually one of Nyx’s memories?” Raven stares at me, eyes wide in disbelief.It’s just after dinner and we are in my room just chatting and catching up. Aspen is playing with her dolls on the carpet floor and from the looks of it, sh
By the time the sun sank low, the weight of the scepter still hadn’t left me. Even when it vanished from my grip, it remained humming in the marrow of my bones, alive in my veins.Summoning the scepter hadn’t just been a triumph; it had been a shift. I could feel it in my bones, in the way my steps
Alec.I can still feel her lips on mine minutes after we pulled apart. The soft tremor of them against mine, the way she leaned in like her heart couldn’t fight it anymore. And then—the tears.Not tears of rejection. Not tears of regret. But something far more dangerous. They were the kind of tears
I walk through the corridors, my head bobbing to music only I can hear.I’m on a mission. And that mission is to find my sister.Ever since we turned sixteen, our training and study sessions have doubled. Don’t get me wrong, we still get breaks and time to hang out with others—but everything else ta







