Page 20 of Awakened

My mother's familiar voice crashes over me with jarring intensity.

Don’t you dare let him railroad your truth with his lies.

What? What’s happening?

I know it can’t possibly be my mother, but that doesn’t stop me from calling out to her in my mind.

Mama?

I promised you happiness, my love, but I never promised the journey would be easy. Fight, my darling girl. Don’t you dare give up now.

Her words are like glowing embers, spinning around me before settling to land on my skin. One by one, they dissolve, burrowing deep into my bones until they become a permanent part of me.

Fight.

Yes. I know how to fight. And I can’t give up now. Not yet.

It’s not easy, but I force back the Void and open my eyes. My gaze falls on Soren like it’s been drawn to him, but instead of the disgust I’m anticipating after Daxen’s list of my crimes, there is only curiosity in his bright green eyes.

He has questions, and I’m not sure I’ll have the answers. I understand so little about my life anymore. Nothing makes sense, and the world itself is nothing I believed it to be. Fate. Mates. Love. Trust. Honesty. Cruelty. Pain. Good. Evil. Honor. Cowardice—just a few in a long list of fundamental truths I’ve discovered are lies. Or at the very least, seem to exist almost exclusively in an infinite spectrum of grey.

Even my own identity—my very sense of self—is little more than a giant question mark.

There’s just one, single undeniable truth in my life left for me to hold onto. One piece of me that remains undeniable.

I am the daughter of Annalise Varenthrall. I am my mother’s legacy, and her blood runs through my veins. Her spirit lives on inside of me, keeping me alive long after I no longer physically required her to survive. Even in death, her love fuels me, and her strength reminds me who I am.

Her strength is a part of me. Possibly the most important part.

And I’ve had enough of males who use their words and status the way my father used his fists and belt.

If I stay silent now, I’ll avoid more pain. I’ll survive another night—if only by the skin of my teeth. Soren will hear their side of the story, and my silence will leave him no choice but to accept their version of events.

Most likely, given the severity of their accusations, he’ll leave. Do his best to forget I exist. Find some way to get rid of our Bond—if that’s even possible.

If I sit silently by as my chance at a future full of joy and love is ripped to shreds by the two males who have already stolen so much from me…

Then what the fuck is there left to fight for?

Dax and Vae already stole two futures from me tonight. Already set fire to every wish and hope and dream I’ve kept close since I was a little girl. And in exchange, they left centuries’ worth of pain, a secret too heavy to carry on my own, and two half-formed, dying Mate Bonds, I’ll have to watch wither to nothing until I take my last breath.

And now they think to take more?

No.

NO.

Daxen Montclair doesn’t get to take anything else from me.

He doesn’t get to tell my story as though it belongs to him.

Dax shifts, leaning back and adjusting his position like he’s getting comfortable. Like he’s preparing to tell a bedtime story. The fire in my chest ignites, flames roaring and burning with anger. A sense of determination washes over me, erupting from my chest and bursting through my veins.

Daxen’s mouth parts, but before he can speak, the heat in my chest explodes.

Along with my refusal.

“No.”