Rhea
The air inside the abandoned pavilion tasted of stale moss and fear. My fingers wouldn't stop shaking. Every time I looked down, a faint ribbon of violet light flickered beneath my skin, like trapped lightning desperate to be set free.
I pressed my palms hard against the freezing stone floor, trying to ground myself, trying to silence the roaring in my ears.
"Stay down," I whispered, my voice cracking. "Please, just for a few hours."
Inside my head, Astraea was pacing. She wasn't calm anymore. She was hungry.
'They are coming,' she hissed in my mind. 'Let them come. We are not hiding anymore.'
"We have to hide," I countered, biting my lip until I tasted copper. "If they see what I really am, they won't let me leave. They’ll chain me up faster than before."
A heavy thud echoed f
