The twin she lost, who exists somewhere else now, facing challenges she can't help with.
"I hate it!" Her voice rises with emotion that's clearly been building for longer than this conversation. "Idespiseit!"
Tears build in her transformed eyes—moisture that speaks to grief she hasn't had time to process, pain she hasn't had space to acknowledge.
"And maybe this is what my parents were fighting to avoid!" The observation carries sudden clarity, realization crystallizing into words. "They wanted us to all coexist in a place that challenged us instead of threatening our fucking existence!"
Her parents.
The Academy's founders.
A vision corrupted by Elena's intervention.
"Because guess what?" She's breathless now, emotion overwhelming whatever composure she was trying to maintain. "The WORLD is filled with wickedness! It doesn't matter who we are. What beings we are. Human. Shifter. Outcast or Hybrid."
Her pink eyes burn into mine with intensity that makes my chest ache.
"Wickedness is woven into our fate," she declares. "And it takes US and our determination to not allow it to paint our destiny for the worse instead of better."
She releases my face.
Steps back slightly—not retreat, but repositioning. Creating space that allows her to stand taller, to project the confidence that she somehow maintains despite everything she's just admitted to feeling.
She shows me her hands.
Golden-shimmed skin catching whatever light filters through the chaos around us, fingers spread as if offering something invisible for my examination.
"I want to discover who I am," she says, voice steadier now, determination replacing the desperation that characterized her earlier words. "I want to appreciate and unravel how my parents met. How they were able to coexist and mingle. How they fell in love and started to build something with so much potential."
Her heritage.
The mystery of her parents' relationship.
Questions she's never had the opportunity to answer.
"I want to appreciate this side of me," she continues, gesturing at her transformed appearance—the golden hair, the pink eyes, the shimmer that broadcasts her awakened Fae nature. "Instead of feeling like my femininity is an attribute I can't love and enjoy."
She struggles with that too.
The femininity she tries to suppress.
Survival teaching her that softness is weakness.
"Just as I want to embrace my vampire side and the capabilities it gives me."
Both halves.
Both heritages.
Learning to love the complete self rather than favoring one aspect over another.
"I want to love me," she declares, the words carrying weight that speaks to struggles I never fully understood. "And those who dare risk their lives for me. But I also want us to learn more about ourselves."
Her eyes meet mine with intensity that demands acknowledgment.
"There's so much that I crave, Cassius," she says, my name on her lips carrying intimacy that makes something in my chest tighten. "Including being with you in the high tides and the low tides."
High tides and low tides.
