{AURORA'S POV}
Sleep wouldn't come.
I'd been staring at the ceiling for what felt like hours, tossing and turning, recalling everything Scarlett said to me. Every word she said carved itself into my mind, every secret she revealed pressing down on me until I felt like I could hardly breathe, feeding the kind of fear that didn't leave you when the sun went down.
I thought I understood why I was hunted, why humans look at people like me like I'm something that shouldn't exist. But Scarlett, she tore through every illusion I had left. She told me the reason why witches, my very own kind, would sooner see me dead and buried than alive and breathing.
I couldn't make sense of it. I didn't want to.
I turned on my side, staring at the wall. The candle beside my bed had burned down to a stub, its flame trembling like it was afraid of the dark too.
