VALERIE
Ava’s recovery was surprisingly fast.
I was relieved to see her in full health when she awoke that morning. She greeted me with her usual glowing face and her cheerful voice. A peppy, “Hello, Valerie!” touched my ears like music.
I had been so worried that she’d had the potion. That she’d wound up like a mindless, soulless shell, just as the others had. But she seemed…relatively normal. Perhaps not the Ava I knew, but a fragment of her.
We sat over breakfast and I recanted everything to her. Every single little event that had led up to this moment. From that miraculous day in the shop when Xavier stumbled upon me. From the moment he took me to the castle and every event that transpired after.
I left out some details, of course. The romance between Xavier and I, my moment with
