October 17, 2023, 08:20 AM
anger welled in ava’s thrumming breast. who else was left to take from her?
abel first; gone without closure. then saint, and ana —
and judah, and caracal —
ava’s eyes blazed as she stalked the broken strand. she replayed caracal’s burial over and over again.
first, ava had her birthright taken from her. before she was six weeks of age she’d lost her parents — bartered around unwanted until god’s good graces placed her in caracal and heda’s fold.
she’d lost her name, and her home.
vagrant.
then the loss of her siblings. one by one her bloodline faded away, a piece of her killed in the name of assimilation into god’s house and caracal’s family —
but what was love without some small tragedy?
caracal’s stilled face loomed in her mind as malakai’s voice replayed.
he’d lost a father, but ava had already lost two. his first loss was just another notch for ava; already a culmination of loss made its home in her young soul. injustice burned in her heart to be so openly and coldly snubbed before the fragmented remains of what was supposed to be her family.
had it been intentional? was he just reminding her she was an outsider, unwelcome even on the deathbed of a man who’d by all accounts, been her father in every measure?
ava hurled a scream over the bounding waves, her voice pointed like a hateful spear in the direction of sweetharbor’s cursed shores.
abel first; gone without closure. then saint, and ana —
and judah, and caracal —
ava’s eyes blazed as she stalked the broken strand. she replayed caracal’s burial over and over again.
first, ava had her birthright taken from her. before she was six weeks of age she’d lost her parents — bartered around unwanted until god’s good graces placed her in caracal and heda’s fold.
she’d lost her name, and her home.
vagrant.
then the loss of her siblings. one by one her bloodline faded away, a piece of her killed in the name of assimilation into god’s house and caracal’s family —
but what was love without some small tragedy?
caracal’s stilled face loomed in her mind as malakai’s voice replayed.
he’d lost a father, but ava had already lost two. his first loss was just another notch for ava; already a culmination of loss made its home in her young soul. injustice burned in her heart to be so openly and coldly snubbed before the fragmented remains of what was supposed to be her family.
had it been intentional? was he just reminding her she was an outsider, unwelcome even on the deathbed of a man who’d by all accounts, been her father in every measure?
ava hurled a scream over the bounding waves, her voice pointed like a hateful spear in the direction of sweetharbor’s cursed shores.