MasukZephyron.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
Zephyron.I closed my eyes against the biting night air, but nothing changed.For once, I was not thinking of the version of Lyra that only existed in our past, but the new girl who now existed in place of Aurelia Thorn, and my heart pulsed in affection for her and for the relationship we shared. I had heard that she died when I left her for Lyra on that stage, and guilt had eaten me until she returned a different woman, even down to her wolf. I thought of how the old Aurelia had always carried a scent my brain marked as stagnant, even though she was my best friend, a fragile trail of an Omega whose wolf was far too weak for me. It was even difficult to remember how we became best of friends. Before that, she had only been a shadow in the hallways that I rarely noticed, a girl whose eyes would instantly stare at the ground every time I saw her.I remembered, though, that I knew her because she had loved me with a desperate, suffocating devotion that was hard not to notice, even to t
Zephyron.I kissed her again, and this time as hard as I could.It might have lasted longer, too, but she pushed me and struck my naked chest lightly with a closed fist, forcing me to step back and look at her. The scowl on her face was angry, and she stared so hard that it hurt my heart and made me look at the contours of her slim belly as she breathed."Stop it," she said, hissing. "Why do you kiss me like that?""Like what?""You know exactly what it is like, damn you. You don't let me breathe when you kiss me like that, and I can't stand it."My eyes went down to her pretty, pedicured feet, hidden by shadows in the semi-darkness, but not so thick that my wolf eyes would struggle to see."You don't kiss me as you used to," I answered, tired."Then you don't have to kiss me. I get disgusted when you try to kiss me like that, and I don't want you to even think of doing it anymore," she spat, her voice going up an octave. "Lyra-" I began."Stop," she said, holding up her hand towards
AureliaNever had I found myself so torn between two people I loved.It was not like I would have been able to remember any other instances, anyway.The pressure inside the Labyrinth of Whispers grew so tense that it felt to me as though the hedges themselves were collapsing and pressing themselves together with me in their midst. I was not even sure of what was real anymore, and what was an illusion. Everything felt so true.Kai still stood to one side, bathed in the radiant, golden current that flowed from the path in front of which he stood, his blue eyes showing me the sort of desire I would have loved to want from him, the kind that would make him love me with all the affection I could imagine.Directly ahead, the crystalline, icy blue runway showed Talia, her voice reminding me of our sisterly bond, whose part she had fulfilled when she did everything she could to bring me back to life. "You made a mistake with Zephyron in the past," she cried, holding out her hands to me. "I wa







