Page 296 of Axis of Fire

The streets were empty.

Drenched in silence and discipline.

The candles lining the houses felt less like decoration...

And more like witnesses.

Or guards.

I exhaled quietly, pulling Tarven’s oversized hoodie tighter around myself.

I'd stolen it from him before moving into the dormitory.

I wasn't cold.

Just deeply uncomfortable.

The kind of discomfort that settles beneath your skin until your whole body trembles.

God...

I wanted to run.

But Tarven would never let me disappear.

“My parents haven't seen you in a long time,” he said with surprising enthusiasm as he continued walking through streets that seemed designed to strip people of hope.

“They've asked me several times to bring you over.”

Tarven's parents loved me.

As though I were their own daughter.

Whenever I had to stay with my father while Alicia was there, I usually ended up hiding with Tarven's family until my sister returned to our mother in Utararus.

His parents had always welcomed me.

His sisters, however...

Were an entirely different story.

Tarven had six of them.

Three were already married and living elsewhere.

The remaining three were loyal servants of Hell itself.

At least, that's how I preferred to think of them.

Not once had I visited without one of them trying to wound me with carefully chosen words.

Or ruin my clothes behind an innocent smile.

Or find some other subtle way to remind me I didn't belong.

“Don’t tell me you'd mind staying at my parents’ house for the night?” Tarven glanced at me.

If it weren't for this damned bracelet, I would've filled the air around him with enough plant toxins to knock him unconscious.