❝ Pain was my fuel, until the fire began bleeding from my veins. ❞
The girl without a name.
The black-haired fiend devoid of fear.
The sharp-tongued scoundrel always ready with a trick up her sleeve.
Thief and street rat Azura knows how to hustle a...
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◢✥◣ PREVIOUSLY... ◥✥◤
Azura awoke to discover the previously vibrant bruise on her jaw from her training to have healed overnight. Continuing to hide her mysterious abilities, she re-injured herself. Later, she encountered the boy who had wounded her and learnt that he's the only shape-shifter within the Order, hailing from the destroyed Tacree Kingdom.
༛༛ ༛ ༛༺༻༛ ༛ ༛༛
Lessons that day leave my eyes grainy with exhaustion, but I can't seem to relax as I lay in my bed, staring at the dark ceiling, snores from Suri the only noise in the room.
Most of the day was spent exercising, running circles around the ballroom until my legs burned and my clothes were damp with sweat. Then there was Erasmus' constant yelling, his voice a thunderclap in the wide space every time one of us fell behind or just because he felt like it.
The knock on the door makes me blink and sit up, my back straining in protest. Who would visit us at this time?
They're here to kill you. They know you're a monster.
I slip from the bed and keep my steps light as I approach the door, gloved fingers curled into fists as I once again long for a weapon. I remind myself to swipe a knife at breakfast.
The rap on the door comes again and I hold my breath.
"Azura," comes a voice, one I recognise.
My shoulders slump and I open the door, light from the candles in the hall flooding the room. "Erasmus," I murmur as I reveal the man.
"Get dressed," he commands and I frown at him.
"Why?"
He glances towards the lumps in the other beds. "Quickly, please."
I gnaw on my lower lip as I nod, shut the door, and tug on a navy sweater and boots before stepping out into the hall with him. I follow behind him as he walks through the winding halls that I still struggle to familiarise myself with.
Erasmus takes me outside and through the overgrown vegetation of the school's grounds, keeping his lips sealed the entire way. My breath swirls in the air before my face, the cool night air heavy with the wet smell of dirt and dying plants. I wrap my arms around myself as we pass the twisted iron gates of the school, leaving behind the crumbling but deceiving manor.
Erasmus leads me into the woods just beyond the school and each step adds another stone to my stomach.
Run. Run now.
Except, I can't. I agreed to this path, now I have no choice but to see it through until what will no doubt be a bitter end.
