"Your mother was thrilled to find out about you."
How long had that lasted? How long before she discovered her child was the sondaleur and she'd have to spend the next sixteen years ruthlessly molding her into a weapon?
I seared the small room to memory.
The cage where my mother battled her demons alone so she could do what she needed to.
A sterile box where I was conceived to fulfill a prophecy.
It served as a simple reminder. There hadn't been another choice for either of us.
I stood. "Thanks for meeting with me."
His face still had the shade of understanding I instinctively wanted to reel away from. "Even at that age, your mother was an extraordinary ondine. She would've been proud of you, sondaleur ."
It was the first time he addressed me by that title.
Managing a quick nod, I hurried out to the hallway. Daniel called after me, but I ignored him.
A surge of panic reared up. Blood drummed through my veins, mixing with the echo of footsteps hammering against my skull.
I had to get out of here.
Away from the empty silence, the artificial lights, the oppressive atmosphere.
Just the thought of going back to the main hospital through the underground passageway made me sick.
Racing past a startled Ewan, I exited through the metal door and came to a stop a few feet away.
I bent over, gulping down air. Heart pounded against my ribs.
"Are you okay?" Ewan's shoes entered my eyesight.
I concentrated on the cold filling my compressed lungs.
Just breathe.
"Yeah."
"Are you having a panic atta —"
"I'm fine."
I willed my pulse to go back to normal. The dizzying anxiety gradually loosened its hold and after a few moments, I straightened.
Worried amber eyes flickered over me.
"I'm okay," I said in a calmer tone. My hands trembled and I clasped them behind my back so he wouldn't see. "Just had to get out of there. I'm not too crazy about hospitals."
The worry in his eyes changed to something else and I turned away. I'd had enough of that look today.
"Did you find what you wanted?" he asked, tentative.
I gave him the only answer I could.
"I found what I needed to hear."
SEVEN
Quiet permeated the woods along the edge of the Academy. But it wasn't the same stifling silence that crushed me in the hospital wing.
Wind whispered through bare tree branches. The rasp of breath and crunch of boots rhythmically punctuated the air. The sounds were subtle markers of life and they reassured me.
I'd almost lost it in front of Ewan. It was embarrassing.
Lack of sleep, unrelenting memories, and tense anxiety wore on me with each passing day. I managed to handle it for the past few months, but now my control was slipping.
I needed to get ahold of it. Being in control meant the difference between life and death. Between acceptable results and mistakes that cost too much.
I neared a copse of trees and the faint murmur of voices trickled through the darkness. People rarely came this way. It was too far from the main campus.
Dim moonlight filtered through, softly illuminating Amber and Dylan. They stood close in what seemed like an intimate conversation.
Uninterested in watching them get physical, I turned to leave.
"Don't let him get to you. That's what he wants," Amber said.
I froze.
"He's right, though." Dylan's posture stiffened. "We have to do this."
"We'll figure something out."
It was a private moment and I should've walked away.
But it bothered me that Alex knew more about Dylan than I did.
As an Empath, my strength lay in figuring people out. Not having that knowledge felt too much like a vulnerability and now was a perfect opportunity to fix that.
Ignoring the slight twinge of my conscience, I unfiltered my Virtue and pushed into them.
A confused, tangled mess of emotions burst through and I almost staggered at the force rolling off Dylan. The turmoil came from something deep, something that had built in power over the years.
By contrast,
How long had that lasted? How long before she discovered her child was the sondaleur and she'd have to spend the next sixteen years ruthlessly molding her into a weapon?
I seared the small room to memory.
The cage where my mother battled her demons alone so she could do what she needed to.
A sterile box where I was conceived to fulfill a prophecy.
It served as a simple reminder. There hadn't been another choice for either of us.
I stood. "Thanks for meeting with me."
His face still had the shade of understanding I instinctively wanted to reel away from. "Even at that age, your mother was an extraordinary ondine. She would've been proud of you, sondaleur ."
It was the first time he addressed me by that title.
Managing a quick nod, I hurried out to the hallway. Daniel called after me, but I ignored him.
A surge of panic reared up. Blood drummed through my veins, mixing with the echo of footsteps hammering against my skull.
I had to get out of here.
Away from the empty silence, the artificial lights, the oppressive atmosphere.
Just the thought of going back to the main hospital through the underground passageway made me sick.
Racing past a startled Ewan, I exited through the metal door and came to a stop a few feet away.
I bent over, gulping down air. Heart pounded against my ribs.
"Are you okay?" Ewan's shoes entered my eyesight.
I concentrated on the cold filling my compressed lungs.
Just breathe.
"Yeah."
"Are you having a panic atta —"
"I'm fine."
I willed my pulse to go back to normal. The dizzying anxiety gradually loosened its hold and after a few moments, I straightened.
Worried amber eyes flickered over me.
"I'm okay," I said in a calmer tone. My hands trembled and I clasped them behind my back so he wouldn't see. "Just had to get out of there. I'm not too crazy about hospitals."
The worry in his eyes changed to something else and I turned away. I'd had enough of that look today.
"Did you find what you wanted?" he asked, tentative.
I gave him the only answer I could.
"I found what I needed to hear."
SEVEN
Quiet permeated the woods along the edge of the Academy. But it wasn't the same stifling silence that crushed me in the hospital wing.
Wind whispered through bare tree branches. The rasp of breath and crunch of boots rhythmically punctuated the air. The sounds were subtle markers of life and they reassured me.
I'd almost lost it in front of Ewan. It was embarrassing.
Lack of sleep, unrelenting memories, and tense anxiety wore on me with each passing day. I managed to handle it for the past few months, but now my control was slipping.
I needed to get ahold of it. Being in control meant the difference between life and death. Between acceptable results and mistakes that cost too much.
I neared a copse of trees and the faint murmur of voices trickled through the darkness. People rarely came this way. It was too far from the main campus.
Dim moonlight filtered through, softly illuminating Amber and Dylan. They stood close in what seemed like an intimate conversation.
Uninterested in watching them get physical, I turned to leave.
"Don't let him get to you. That's what he wants," Amber said.
I froze.
"He's right, though." Dylan's posture stiffened. "We have to do this."
"We'll figure something out."
It was a private moment and I should've walked away.
But it bothered me that Alex knew more about Dylan than I did.
As an Empath, my strength lay in figuring people out. Not having that knowledge felt too much like a vulnerability and now was a perfect opportunity to fix that.
Ignoring the slight twinge of my conscience, I unfiltered my Virtue and pushed into them.
A confused, tangled mess of emotions burst through and I almost staggered at the force rolling off Dylan. The turmoil came from something deep, something that had built in power over the years.
By contrast,
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