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
“That’s not true,” I protested weakly. “I grieved. I’ve done nothing but grieve.”“You’ve felt the pain, yes. But you haven’t processed it, haven’t accepted it. You’ve been holding on to hope, refusing to let go of the possibility that she might still be alive somewhere. That she might have been The
Agnes“What do you think of this couch?”I pointed at a plush sectional sofa on my laptop screen. It had been two and a half weeks since Elijah’s bombshell about Thea, and we’d fallen into an unspoken agreement—act normal on the outside, freak out on the inside.Elijah peered over my shoulder, his c
AgnesI woke up feeling like I was burning from the inside out.Heat coursed through my veins. My sheets were so damp with sweat that they were clinging to my body. The sensation wasn’t painful, exactly, but it was intense—like a fever, but concentrated in my hands and chest.For a moment, I just la
AgnesMy knees buckled. The hallway seemed to sway around me, and for a moment, I thought I might collapse right there on the hotel carpet.“What?” The word came out as a choked whisper.Elijah reached out, steadying me with his hands on my shoulders. “Let’s sit down,” he murmured, guiding me to the







