MasukThe crowd continued to applaud as Thea took one final bow before exiting the stage. The moment she was out of sight, Elijah grabbed my hand.“Come on,” he said, already pulling me toward the aisle. “Let’s get backstage before everyone else.”We made our way through the crowd, accepting congratulatio
AgnesEight years had passed by.The concert hall was packed to capacity, not a single empty seat in sight. My spine ached like hell from sitting on the hard wooden chair for the past two hours, and my pregnant belly made it impossible to find a comfortable position. Elijah kept rubbing his neck and
“Mom?” Thea’s voice called. “Everyone’s waiting. Are you ready?”I took one last look in the mirror, adjusted the mask slightly, and turned toward the door.“Ready,” I said, opening it to find my daughter standing there in a midnight blue dress that she had designed herself. Her own mask, shaped lik
AgnesOne year later.I stood in front of my mirror, hardly recognizing the woman staring back at me. Two years. It had been two years since I met Elijah—not counting that foggy night we conceived Thea seven years before that, a night neither of us could fully remember thanks to whatever drugs had b
Initially, I resisted. The thought of sharing my pain with a stranger when I had spent so many years being treated like a madwoman for my trauma scared the hell out of me. But Elijah was persistent, reminding me that we all carried burdens that were too heavy to bear alone.And so, twice a week, we
AgnesThe weeks following the destruction of the Lunaris Stone passed in a blur.Elemental Enterprises, of course, was immediately shut down by the authorities. Every known international law enforcement agency descended on Richard’s territory, working alongside Richard and us to document the crimes
AgnesThea had been bouncing around my room all evening, pulling dresses from my closet and tossing them in a massive heap on the floor. She was so enthusiastic that I didn’t have the heart to ask her to stop. Finally, she seemed to settle on a deep emerald gown, one I hadn’t worn in years, and her
AgnesI woke up with a jolt to the sound of my alarm blaring in my ears. My hand shot out to silence it, and as I did, I felt the weight of the book from the restricted section sliding off my chest and onto the bed. I groaned, rubbing my eyes as the events of the previous night came rushing back.I
ElijahThe distance between us worsened every day after that night in my study.Once, Agnes and I had been able to build a tentative trust, maybe even a tender sort of understanding. We had our slip-ups, like that day in the hallway after she had slapped her stepmother, but things were still good.B
AgnesThe weeks after that night in Elijah’s study passed in a blur, and yet somehow more normal than I expected.Of course, I rebuilt the wall around my heart brick by brick, and made sure to build it thicker than it was before. I told myself I had been foolish—reckless, even—to think that I could







