“You little—” He dodges me, giggling as he sprints up the stairs to his room.
Lucifer, help us all. There’s way too much of Nevaeh in that boy.
I step out of the castle, nodding at the warriors on guard.
I walk aimlessly, but nothing helps until I reach my training field.
The only place where I can let my guard down and let everything slide off my shoulders.
I pat my favorite tree in the far corner of the field before sinking beneath it and stretching to lie down on the ground.
In the morning, this tree gives me shade when I’m exhausted and sweating. But at night, under the shadows of its thickbranches and the soft rustle of leaves, I find a peaceful place to lay my worries to rest.
The cool grass beneath me cuts through the noise in my head.
I don’t know when it started, but after the first night Tiberius invaded my dreams, I ended up here.
The open space, the silence… it gave me somewhere to unravel before piecing myself back together.
Every time it feels like I’m going to suffocate, I come here and stare up at the sky full of twinkling stars. They remind me how I’m just a tiny part of the universe. And the fear inside me isn’t as consuming as it feels in the moment.
I feel stupid for ever hating the world above water.
Maybe I would’ve run sooner if someone had told me this is where freedom lived… not in the deep, soulless water.
When I first arrived in the human realm, I had no idea how different life would be. I didn’t have anyone to introduce me to this new world or teach me their way of life.
It was just me in a world that didn’t care if I survived it.
I barely knew anything about my own kind. I only knew what I could feel or what Tiberius allowed me to hear.
He never wanted me to understand my power because, to him, I was never meant to use it. I was just a body to him, kept alive only to breed the next generation of soldiers for him.
The first time anyone showed me kindness was a human handing me a few crumpled notes, feeling sorry for my state.
I didn’t need the money. Sure, I didn’t have a roof over my head, but I could fend for myself just fine. The thought of being trapped inside four walls again… that terrified me more than the streets could.
That’s why I can’t fully agree with Dean’s hatred for humans.
They are complicated. Capable of kindness and cruelty in equal measure.
For fourteen years, Tiberius reminded me every day that my beauty was a gift meant to be used by him. No one cared what I thought or what I wanted. They only took… until there was nothing left to take.
Tiberius tried to break me, but he failed.
Every time I was pushed down, a part of my soul broke, but I never stayed there. Even with my face pressed to the ground, the sky falling on me… I only fought harder.
Sometimes I wonder what would’ve happened if I had just stayed down.
But then I look around me, surrounded by people who love me, a place I can call home, and I’m glad I didn’t stop fighting.
Footsteps pull me out of my thoughts.
I don’t need to look to know who it is.
Dean’s face comes into view as he looks down at me sprawled on the ground.
“Hazel, we’ve talked about this. Stop sneaking out of bed. I’m too young to die of a heart attack because my mate disappears in the middle of the night.”
