I’d come to Odyssey Bluff earlier in the evening to get some time with Nebula to celebrate my success in feeding. Although I had no interest in joining her, Dreadful had evidently told me the truth: there was supposed to be a shooting star tonight. I originally wanted to see it with Nebula, but there wouldn’t be a chance to see the shooting star tonight because of the thick rolling clouds blocking the sky.
I’d always wanted to know what rain felt like when I was in the cellar, and since being free, I had yet to experience rain. But with summer coming to an end, autumn brought thunderstorms.
Tonight, the desert was alive with a violent storm, the kind that transformed the arid landscape into a display of elemental fury.Lightning forked across the sky, and thunder rolled over the sands like the drums of the Fates.
I inhaled the scent of minerals and rain heavy in the air. The patter of rain hit the lake water soothingly as I sat on the sand with Nebula in my hands. Cold droplets kissed my skin, and I smiled.
Dark goo spilled out onto my palms as his soul manifested. “This is better than the shooting star.”
“It really is,” I murmured, voice barely audible over the storm above us. “It’s like there’s something magical about the rain. It’s like it’s washing away my soul’s sorrows, leaving everything fresh and new. Fates, it’s everything I thought it would be.”
Nebula hummed with a spectral energy, and a voice, not disembodied like usual but soft and purring like the kitten Nebula once was, echoed in my mind. “I remember our talks in the cellar, Pandora. The rain was our calm; the drumming on the doors meant she wouldn’t come. You were right. We get to feel it. We’re free now—you’re free.”
I stuck my toes into the wet sand as a shiver wracked through me, but I smiled brightly. The cellar with my mother was just a memory now. Mother wasjusta memory. “Everything’s different now, Nebula. Back then, the rain was apromise of the outside. Now, it’s proof of the life we are able to live.”
“Yes, it is.”
I admired another strike of lightning. “I finally figured out how to call on my powers today in class. It’s like I’ve tapped into the very pulse of my existence.”
“I knew you could do it, Pandora. You’ve always had the strength inside of you. Your magic is a part of who you are, a gift as natural to you as the rain is to Kalista.”
My heart swelled as my thumb glided over his soaked skull. “There’s more. I’ve found connections, like the ones I used to go on and on about having after reading Fate Hollow Academy. Hunter and Reed make me feel safe and cared for, and I’ve kissed both of them. I can’t choose, and I don’t feel like I have to. Isn’t that crazy?”
“Love is unconditional, Pandora. You wouldn’t have a pull to both of them if the Fates didn’t intend for it.”
I hugged him close, energized and full of love for the life I’d been given. “Thank you, Nebula. Thank you for always believing in me. I couldn’t have made it away from Mother’s abuse if it wasn’t for you.”
Nebula’s dark presence surrounded me, and it was like home. “Pandora, you’re full of passionand power. I’m so proud of you and everything you’ve accomplished.”
His soul receded back into his skull, the energy dimming to a soft glow as Nebula fell asleep.
I carefully tucked him back into my bag and put the strap across my body before closing my eyes and then looking up to the sky. The wind whipped my hair around, damp pieces clinging to my cheeks. The rain pelted my skin—each drop a cold pinprick against the warmth of my flesh. It was the most peace I’d ever felt in my entire life, aside from kissing the two men I couldn’t stop thinking about.
My heart thrummed in my chest at the thought of them.
A sudden laughter, sharp and unexpectant against the thunder, struck a nerve in my being.
My breath hitched as I jerked my head toward the academy.
Shadows detached themselves from the the direction of campus—a group of nobles, their silhouettes stark against the intermittent illumination from the lightening in the sky.
Dreadful, a figure of elegance even in the disarray of the storm, led them. Her blue eyes glinted with a cruel mirth that cut deep. “Were you too good to join us tonight?”
“Yeah, Nightwind wassosad you didn’t show,” Voidfire teased, her voice filled with hate.
Before I could react, multiple hands grabbed at me, pushing me down and ripping me from the peace I had felt. The shock of the cold, wet sand scraping against my skin was nothing compared to the fear that gripped my heart.
Blows rained down upon me, each strike a bolt of pain that seared through my flesh and tore at old scars buried deep within my past. I didn’t even know how many there were.
Blood welled in my mouth as fire blasted under my skin, but I cradled my bag close, making sure they didn’t hit Nebula in their attacks.
Their mockery as they punched and kicked at me triggered memories of my mother's cruelty—the heavy chain attached to my ankle as it rattled over the stone, the sharp lacerations of her shadows, and the pain that settled bone-deep.
They didn’t stop until my magic reserves dwindled, and I stopped healing from the blows, and then they beat me more.
My magic didn’t awaken so I could fight back, and I believed it was the fear that triggered inside of me blocking it. I could almost feel the suffocating darkness of the cellar clinging to me again.
“Why?” I choked out, coughing up andspitting blood onto the wet sand, my voice raspy from the larynx damage that had never fully healed. They’d stepped on my throat several times through the attack, and itburned.
