MAYA
"You'll be fine, Maya," I whispered, though my voice shook. "You’ll go back… back to before the Gala, before you met him, before all of this. You don’t need him. You don’t need anyone." The lie quivered on my tongue, but I kept walking.
Freedom burned like ash on my tongue. Ashbourne was no home: it was a prison of scorn, where my father’s cold eyes cut deeper than any blade and Veyra’s venom waited to strip me bare. I would rather vanish into the wilds than crawl back to that cage.
Tears pressed hot against my lashes, but I swallowed them down, strangling the sob clawing at my chest. Tears had never saved me. Not when Stacy drenched me in humiliation. Not when my father named me a disgrace. Not when Kael’s gaze seared me with a hunger he refused to claim.
Crying was useless. As u
