AELIA REVA
The fire had burned low by the time I found the strength to lift my head. Ash clung to the edges of the logs, the glow beneath them pulsing faintly like the last heartbeat of something dying. My own unsteady and heavy heartbeat matched it.
Tyler has been silent through the whole conversation with Seraphine. He stood near the window now, his hands braced against the sill, staring into the dark outside. The shape of his shoulders is rigid, as though every word he'd heard was still weighing him down.
I drag in a breath that rattles in my chest. "I can't… just let this go."
His head turned slightly, but he didn't speak.
"I can't keep pretending the past doesn't matter," I press, my voice shaking less than I expected. "They killed her. They burned her. And all this time, I was being treated like a worthless piece of paper by them, living among them, letting them look at me like I was wrong, when it was them. It was always them."
