Page 2 of Wings of Ashes
What if I make it so that I never get taken? Never get caged.
There were several defining moments in her past that could have led to her twisted, horrible future.I will change it, she thought.
“So, the nudity thing. Was that your first attempt to get my brother to see you as a ‘woman’ and not just his little sister’s best friend?” Elle asked after following Nix back to her room.
Elle watched as Nix ransacked the closet for something to wear.
“Are you actually planning to do something about your crush this year?” Elle asked.
Crush. An innocent and childish crush. It had been so long since any sensation other than pain existed in Nix’s emotional catalogue. Tolikea boy felt so…odd now.
Elle added, “Because I’ve told you many times that I think you and my brother would besucha cute couple.”
Elle’s brother Adar had always been Nix’s dream crush. But Nix had never been brave enough to ask him out or say much more to him than a few rushed-out words while staring at his shoes instead of his enchanting, bright blue eyes.
Brave.
In Nix’s youth, she had never been brave. She was a fade-into-the-corner wallflower. A pretty, used doormat with dirt-covered flowers. She allowed others to walk over her. She politely smiled at people who sneered at her.
Nix was exactly the type who ended up taken advantage of—and eventually kidnapped off the streets and caged by a madman who performed torturous experiments on her.
In this second chance at life, Nix would be brave.
“Imagine, if you ended up with my brother, we could be real sisters,” Elle said dreamily.
Sisters. At that point in life, Nix had already seen Elle as her sister. Inseparable best friends for over ten years. Nix had always felt supernaturally connected to Elle.
“So, where were you?” Nix viciously snapped under her breath, accidentally asking it out loud.
Where were you when I was caged and kept inside for years?Tortured. Used. Irrevocably lonely.
Had Elle even tried to locate her? After Elle was married off at graduation, had she even cared about where her best friend had gone?
Elle’s usual bright and beautiful smile twitched into a confused frown. “What?”
“N-Nothing,” Nix quickly said, trying to brush off the tense rage and hurt buzzing beneath her skin. Nix had been left, forgotten.Not this time.
Brave.
This time around, Nix would not passively sit in the shadows and accept her future mistreatment. She would become stronger—until no metal cage could hold her. She would make more connections—sosomeonewould go out looking for her if she suddenly dropped off the face of the earth.
I have almost two more years at the academy to change my fate.
“Being real sisters would be…nice,” Nix said, trying to erase the awkward “where were you” comment from the conversation.
But where had Elle been? Had there been search parties for Nix? The Oadess family, her adoptive family, were moguls of the shifter community. They had enough money to buy power and influence.
And they never found her. Never saved her.
In the end, I died all alone.
Elle blinked but went back to smiling at Nix. “No one would mess with you if we were real sisters.”
“Mess with me…” Nix blinked.
Right. She had forgotten the bullying. Years of actual torture easily erased some harsh words or pranks Nix went through in her young adulthood at the academy.
What was it that her classmates used to call her? Oh yeah, “Ugly Duckling.” No…something a little harsher. Ugly Fuckling.
