MasukSera WintersThe most terrifying revelations aren't the ones that change who you are. They're the ones that prove you never knew yourself at all.I went downstairs.Not because I wanted to. Not because I'd forgiven anything. But because staying locked in my room meant Daxen would keep hearing me think in circles and I couldn't take that anymore.So I went downstairs. To the kitchen. Where normal people did normal things like make food and pretend their lives weren't completely fucked.The kitchen was empty when I got there. Big. Clean. Windows looking out at the forest that went on forever. I opened cabinets until I found bread. Opened the fridge and found cheese. Normal things. Human things.I could do this. Make a sandwich. Eat it. Go back upstairs. Simple.I found a knife in the drawer. Started slicing the bread.The blade slipped.Sliced right across my palm. Deep. Too deep."Shit." I dropped the knife. Grabbed a tow
Sera WintersPrivacy is the first thing captivity takes. Your body, your choices, your space. But when they take your thoughts too, there's nowhere left to hide.I wasn't leaving this room.Not today. Not tomorrow. Maybe not ever.I sat on the bathroom floor with my back against the door and my knees pulled up to my chest. I'd been here since last night. Since I ran from the library. Since I let Kieran touch me and liked it.My body still remembered. Every place his hands had been felt warmer. Different. Marked.I scrubbed at my skin in the shower until it hurt. Until the hot water ran cold. Until I couldn't feel his touch anymore.But I could still feel the pleasure. The way my body had responded to him. The way I'd begged him not to stop.What was wrong with me?Someone knocked on my bedroom door. I ignored it.They knocked again. Louder this time."Sera." Kieran's voice. Soft. Worried. "Please talk to me."I d
Sera WintersSometimes the worst prison isn't the one that holds your body. It's the one that makes you want to stay.I didn't leave the library.Hours passed. The sun went down completely. The room got dark except for one lamp in the corner that Kieran turned on without asking if I wanted it.We talked. About nothing. About everything. About his life before the curse. About mine before I got sold. Normal things. Human things. Like we were just two people having a conversation instead of captor and captive.And I hated how good it felt. How normal. How almost right.My body was exhausted. My mind was exhausted. But I couldn't make myself get up and leave. Couldn't make myself go back to that empty room and sit alone with my thoughts.So I stayed.Kieran didn't push. Didn't ask questions I didn't want to answer. Just sat there and talked when I wanted to talk and stayed quiet when I didn't.It was the kindes
Sera WintersLoneliness is a weapon. And the cruelest captors know exactly how to use it.My hands stopped glowing.I stared at them in the dim light of my room. At my normal, boring hands that had been burning gold just seconds ago. At the skin that looked the same but felt different. Wrong. Like something had changed underneath that I couldn't see.My eyes were back to hazel when I checked the mirror. Not gold. Not burning. Just regular eyes staring back at a face I barely recognized anymore.What was happening to me?I sat on the edge of the bed and tried to slow my breathing. Tried to make sense of it. The healing. The gold eyes. The glow. The heat that had spread through my body like something waking up.You were born this way.Kieran's words from yesterday. From the confrontation with the shard. From the moment I'd threatened to destroy their cure.Born this way.But I'd lived twenty-two years
Sera WintersPower isn't always about strength. Sometimes it's about knowing exactly what someone else is afraid to lose.I ate everything.Every bite of food Kieran had left outside my door. The bread. The soup. The fruit. All of it. I sat on the floor with the tray in my lap and ate until my stomach hurt. Until I felt sick. Until there was nothing left.Not because I wanted to.Because I had to.Because my body had made that decision in the forest when it responded to Daxen's hands on me. When it trembled under his weight. When it wanted things I didn't want.I couldn't trust my body anymore. Couldn't trust my mind. Couldn't trust anything except the fact that I was still here. Still breathing. Still surviving.Even if surviving felt like losing.I set the empty tray outside my door and locked myself back in. Crawled into bed. Pulled the blanket over my head like I was five years old and afraid of monsters.Except the
Sera Winters Fear and desire are closer than anyone wants to admit. Sometimes they're the same thing wearing different masks.Daxen let go.I stumbled back. Caught myself on the bedpost.“What?”Daxen's arms locked around my waist. Pulled me back through the window. My feet hit the floor but my legs wouldn't hold me.He kept his hands on me. Steadying me. His grip was iron."Let go." I shoved at his chest. Might as well have been shoving a wall."Not yet.""I said let go.""I heard you." He was smiling. That same hungry smile. "Answer's still no."I twisted. Tried to break his grip. He just held on tighter. His hands spanning my waist like it was nothing."You were gonna jump," he said. Almost conversational. "Two stories. Would've broken both legs at least. Maybe your neck if you landed wrong.""Better than staying here.""Is it?" He tilted his head. Studying me. "You really think death's better than us?""Yes.







