𝐎𝐍𝐋𝐘 𝐀𝐅𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐍𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓𝐅𝐀𝐋𝐋 | 𝟏𝟖+

𝐓𝐖𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐘-𝐓𝐖𝐎 | 𝐑𝐄𝐁𝐄𝐋𝐋𝐈𝐎𝐍'𝐒 𝐈𝐆𝐍𝐈𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍

ততততত

𝐓 𝐎 𝐁 𝐈 𝐍

𝐓𝐄𝐍 𝐘𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐒 𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐋𝐈𝐄𝐑

I hear their whispers.

My parents' voices echo through the household, yet the sound of them is an inaudible hum that I struggle to decipher. I crack my eyes open, only to have the moonlight fall over the blankets. It's the middle of the night, and the last I remember is...

The whipping.

I attempt to sit up, but fall captive to my mattress. Gods, it's like a thousand spears pierce right into my flesh. When I try to move, my muscles strain for me to relax, to ease.

"For fuck's sakes—"

"Momma told you not to say that word."

A tiny hand grasps onto my own, and a pair of golden eyes meet the dark brown of mine. Aspen. Her chestnut hair is always a bit of a mess, considering she's this tiny little hurricane that creates chaos wherever she goes. I guess being a pain in the ass is in the Parias blood, according to my father. She's always climbing something, always running off into the unknown. She's only six years old, and we can't even contain her.

According to my mother, she sounds like she's turning into me.

"Shouldn't you be in bed?" I grumble as I manage to sit up against the back of the cot.

"I can't sleep," she squeezes my hand. "Momma and daddy are talking too loud about you."

Of course they'd talk about me. In the clouds of mist and drizzle, Leighton punished me for disobeying his orders. I refused to shed innocent blood, and in return, it was mine that had to be shed to the earth. The memories of the event are left in fragments in my mind, but gods, there was blood. So much fucking blood. Every lash against my skin brought me one step closer to meeting the devil himself to bring me to the underworld.

Until my father carried me back home with a new vengeance. I was alive, but barely. Now here I am—a reminder of what was lost and what's at stake.

Aspen's hand squeezes mine. "Can I sleep here?"

How can I say no to my little bundle of chaos? I help her into my bed as she snuggles in against my bare chest. Bandages wrap around my entire torso, and Aspen's tiny fingers fiddle with the fraying edges of the cloth. This punishment will leave me with ugly scars that no one will want to see. They'll be deep into my flesh, healing in such a deformed pattern.

I was soft, and these wounds? They'll turn me back to stone.

Aspen's eyes remain closed as she curls up against me, but through the blistering stiff pain of my back, I know I'm not falling asleep anytime soon. Instead, I stare at the wooden panels of the ceiling.

"You can't leave, Berin," my mother's voice raises just slightly enough so I can hear them outside the bedroom. "Our son almost died today, and you want to run off to Lagulon? You need to be here, with him. You're just damn lucky they let you stay at his side while he recovers."

"Tobin is stable," my father soothes. He has this voice that always seems to calm everyone around him. "But I can't afford to let this happen again. Seeing Tobin suffer like that... it's something I will never be able to unsee."

"This is dangerous. You have children, for god's sake! Planning to overthrow Leighton's entire reign—"

My father hushes her and drops his voice. "Keep your voice down, Aelesia. You never know when the walls have ears."