LOGINAurelia.Without another word, Talia turned and stormed back into the house.She left me there and there I remained, unsure whether to follow her or not-unsure of what to even say to her. I was not angry that she sent Zephyron away, as he had been rather frightening and self-absorbed as we spoke , but I wondered what he could have done to hate him so much.The venom that showed in Talia's eyes when she looked at him, too? That was as new as it was terrifying. It frightened me too.I took a deep breath and followed her inside, and as difficult as it was to admit, I had been quite touchy about certain things that I thought of as sinking sand where Talia and I were concerned since our big fight. I certainly did not want a repeat of something like that, yet this looked just like that sort of thing, and it left a sinking feeling inside my chest.Still, I followed her.She was in her room when I found her, sitting on the edge of her bed with her head in her hands. I heard her breathing, a
Aurelia.Coming around after being unconscious and seeing Lyra Soren looking at me like that was frightening enough for me. Even worse, though, was the fact that seeing her angry face rang no memory bells in my head. In fact, I was not exactly sure I could remember anything until I saw the red teddy that Zephyron had thrown at me while trying to remind me.Then I picked up his scent in the air."Here," he said as our eyes met. "Drink. You must be thirsty."Seeing him made me angry. He had done all that and made me go unconscious only to now act as though nothing had happened. I was also very certain that he had something to do with the watching Lyra."I don't want anything from you," I snapped. "And who is she?"That proved to be a costly mistake on my part."Swear, you dirty bitch," Lyra yelled so hard her face turned red as she stormed towards us. "Swear that you don't know who I am."The next few moments turned out to be one of the most intense things I had ever seen. Zephyron got
Zephyron.It was now my turn to step backwards. Her body lay still on the ground, unmoving, while my heart started to thump inside my chest. My inner wolf growled, while my ears filled up with the sound of my blood rushing through my ears, and my eyesight blurred. I felt as though I was also going to fall as suddenly as she had.It took me some time to pull myself together and get on my knees beside her. She had fallen onto her side, so I rolled her over with shaky hands so that she turned onto her back, still without any signs of life from her."Aure-Aurelia?" I whispered, drawing the hair that had fallen across her face to a side while struggling to keep my hands steady. "Get up."She gave no signs of hearing.I reached for her hand and felt her pulse, which was still there and quite lively, thankfully. I felt it by the side of her neck, too, and I touched her face again, which was warm. Then I put my finger under her nostrils and felt the warm air as she exhaled. It had to mean th
Zephyron.I looked at the teddy bear for the first time since she gave it to me.For the first time, I wondered why I had thought of it as cheap and had been so embarrassed by it that I simply stowed it away. It was covered in red cotton fluffs that were warm to the touch, and the glossy eyes stared back at me in an expression of a permanent smile that felt so genuine.Strangely, I smiled back and traced the threaded lips with my finger."Are you the reason why the Goddess is punishing me?" I asked it, a chuckle rising from my throat. "She saw how I locked you in there all alone with nothing but a picture of a beautiful woman and decided to do the very same to me. To throw me into the darkness a woman's absence leaves you in and bring only a living statue of her back to me?"It said nothing, so I turned it around and saw the tag attached to it.'From Aurelia,' it read.I looked at it for some time before deciding that I wanted to carry it about with me for the rest of the day.**I go
Zephyron.The picture burned away mercilessly with gentle, orange flames.Then there were only the grey ashes flying about in the locker room, and not a shred of the picture remained. I thought of how it had been the one thing I held on to in Lyra's absence, to keep our love close to my heart when she left me, and my only source of consolation was Aurelia. Speaking of Aurelia, the next thing in the compartment was from her.I felt the now familiar embarrassment that I had come to associate with her as I stared at the teddy she got me for the first Valentine that passed after she became closer to me when Lyra left. Of course, she had brought herself to my attention when she jumped without care in front of all the students to check on me, so I considered her far more than the others.She somehow earned my attention and my friendship, but to her, it was love. Even now, I wonder if it was the truest love I could have found.Something Unashamed. Unbridled. Undenied. Something I had faile
Zephyron.I was terrified of waking Lyra in time for school.Thinking I was afraid of her was a stretch, but I was terrified of having to spend the morning with her and all of the chaos that would follow. I did not want to see her scowl, or refuse to kiss me, or hear her nag endlessly about what I should have done or what was supposed to be done. So I got dressed, slipped out of the house and drove to school in my car.It was quite early, and the garage was quite empty even though there were a number of students milling around. I got out of my car, pulled my black leather jacket even tighter around me, and put my sunglasses on to avoid having to look them straight in the eyes as I walked past them.That was the downside of being famous.Attention was fun, but sometimes there was a bit too much of it, and there were times, too, that I didn't want to be seen, just like now.I had barely slept a wink last night, and that had left its effects, as the first thing I noticed when I looked in
Aurelia's POV Talia decided she would clean the house next morning, and I agreed.I only didn't mean it.I waited for as long as two hours for her to sleep before moving as quietly as I could to stop Talia from hearing anything that would wake her up to see me and picking up the bits and pieces of
Talia's POV I was now treading a two-edged sword.The house had been turned upside down and wrecked from the inside-out when I stepped in, and my first priority had been to check Aurelia, as I was afraid that one of her enemies had gotten to her.It only took seeing her walking in to assure me tha
Aurelia's POV Kai's departure left me confused.At the very least, I expected a little more from him.I had not done it intentionally, but I had hoped that he would support me while I collapsed, so the sudden exit was just cold and unexpected from him. I even wondered what he thought about me now—
Aurelia's POV I was relieving the six months in this house all over again.I most certainly understood that it was for my own good, that Talia had told me that there were people who wanted to and had tried to kill me, which was why she did not want me at the match she was going to. At the same ti







