SERAPHINA’S POVI walk back into the building and into the party, closing the door behind me. Only, the second I walk in, Jasper wraps his hands around my shoulders, pulling me forward and towards the crowd that now seems to be facing the both of us. I'm hit with the feeling that something was going on before I walked in. "Attention, everyone!" He yells loud enough, leading me to the center of the room and into the middle of the crowd, while the music gets turned off. "What are you doing?" I ask, feeling my nerves getting riled up.The discomfort from my headache, coupled with all the eyes directed at me, has me feeling uncomfortable and distressed. I find myself breathing harder than normal and fanning myself with my palm while forcing a tight-lipped smile. "We’re going to do a little toast for the birthday girl right here," he announces to everyone, holding up his cup of drinks in the air. Everyone mimics his actions, raising theirs as well. I can faintly smell moons
ARTEMIS’ POVA call was the last thing I was expecting from the man who calls himself my father. It's been almost three weeks since he last reached out, picked up my calls, or replied to my texts. I had to hear about my own mother's state from a psychotic outsider and not him. Yet, the first thing he does when he finally does reach out is summon me for state business, ignoring all the texts I sent, giving me the bare minimum news about Mum. My blood boils with every step I take, moving farther away from Sera and closer to him, mentally rehearsing all the words I'd like to say to him once I finally see him face to face.I almost rip the hinges off the door once I'm in his office, storming into the room. "I will not be a toy that you can place wherever your heart desires and whom you can call and summon as you please," I declare upon entering, only to fall silent instantly once I realize it's not just him and me. No, rather, the Administrator is here as well, standing at the
SERAPHINA’S POVI'm stuck in a room surrounded by fire, pounding at the door while the very last bits of oxygen are being consumed by the flames. The walls around me have corroded to ash and crumble to the floor, but I don't stop pounding and screaming for help until it finally bursts open. I breathe a sigh of relief, only briefly, before I realize standing right in front of me is a burning corpse; charred completely, with a disfigured body and towering over me, tears of bright viscous liquid streaming down. It's a gruesome sight that cripples me with fear before I scream out loud and shut my eyes.The next time I open them, I'm somewhere else. Staring at a white ceiling, I'm breathing so hard that my chest burns painfully. The entire room around me is white as I take in my surroundings, riddled with panic. I thought I was on fire, I thought I was going to die, yet suddenly, I'm somewhere different. Am I still dreaming?A frame is crouched over by my side, with wide shoul
SERAPHINA’S POVIt’s been four days now in this painfully white clinic room. It's been three hours since Artemis left to pick up fresh clothes and real food for me. And it's been almost twenty-four hours—twenty-four long, dreary hours—since the news of Juliet's death was dropped like a bomb. But of course, I know it's a lie. Juliet is not dead. Juliet is not dead.Juliet is not dead.I repeat this to myself, laughing heartily at Jasper’s cruel attempt at a joke yesterday. I laughed right in their convincing faces then, at the Oscar-worthy tears that drenched Jasper's face, and the godforsaken snot that followed.God, he really must have given the cheap prank his best, expensive tricks.Juliet is not dead—I chant it to myself, again and again, until I can feel it in my heart that the words are true. She's a werewolf, and if I had somehow survived the explosion, then she did too. She had to have. What good would all the werewolf agility in the world be if it could n
SERAPHINA’S POVHe picks up my hand, holding onto it tightly like I might slip from his fingers, placing it against his beating heart, and staring right into my soul with a precision that leaves me breathless."This isn’t your fault, baby. Don’t you feel that? Don’t you feel my heart? You’re the life that keeps it beating, Sera. I realized that when I ran into that fire to find you. I realized then - it has become essential for me to always find you, to always love you, and my heart might very well stop pumping if I’m ever forced away from this truth. But I swear, by the moon goddess, by every drop of blood in my veins, by every shred of my being, not even decay or the deepest pits of hell could stop me from loving you. I'd battle through an inferno, crawl if I have to, endure every agony, time and time again, just to ensure this heart keeps beating—to ensure it beats for you."His words are my undoing—and without realizing it at first, tear after tear rolls down my cheek, before i
SERAPHINA’S POVThe following days drift by fast, like a daze, as if time becomes the wind that breezes past us in the blink of an eye, and everything that comes with the passing days a simple dream. It’s all a never-ending nightmare I can’t wake up from, no matter how hard I scream and cry and deny its reality. It remains, casting darkness like a storm that never fades. Juliet isn’t hiding away. It sounds completely unbelievable. I held on to the possibilities of it being all a lie for a few days, an elaborate prank, until the fifth day came, and I hadn’t seen her, and Jasper hadn’t broken into a maniacal laugh about how crazy we all were for falling for it.Slowly, reality has begun to hit, as it always does. It was easier to ignore before while I was still in the hospital room, but outside, it is a different case. Grief is everywhere—at her locker in the form of a thousand flowers and notes, in front of her dorm room, and in all the faces I see.‘Sorry for your loss.’
SERAPHINA’S POVA part of me dies once I make the realization. Deny it as I may, I did it. ‘You killed your own friend.’‘You lost control again.’ The vicious, negative voices in my head begin tearing me down once more, just like they had that night, taunting me, lording over me for ever being hopeful for a second that I could change anything.Hope is a luxury I once had. I danced around in the fields of possibilities, imagined what my life could be like. Hope was like a shining sun that could never set over the horizon. But my hope is dead, and I realize now there was never a point in having it in the first place.I’d always be the evil witch from Astria who killed her friend.My entire body trembles dangerously, shivering in the cold that bites at my skin. I fall to my knees and stare at my hand, the one stained with blood, endlessly flowing blood. First was my father, then Gideon’s Beta - now, Juliet.Even if my father and Gideon’s Beta deserved it - what about Julie
SERAPHINA’S POVOlivia holds me up once I stumble to the ground, panic and surprise plastered across her face. I guess I was the last thing she was expecting to see tonight, being a wanted criminal and all that. "Sera, what happened to you? You look like a mess!" she exclaims once I'm settled on a chair, brushing my sweaty hair away from my face while I catch my breath. "The guards came looking for me again, and Artemis isn't home, so I ran… I don't know where he is, and I don't have anywhere else to go," I say, looking up at her with a desperate plea.Her face turns worried and horrified by my news, with emotions I can't place perfectly, something akin to sadness and pity. Regardless of what she feels, I'm only grateful I don't see hate looking back at me… I was scared that she'd hate me now. "I knew I could come here in case of anything," I smile, clutching onto her arm.Now she frowns, avoiding my eyes for a second, and gently tugs her hand away, which confuses me. I l