sunlit room with the same words echoing

ad all felt like a dream no, a nightmare she was too embarrassed to tell anyone a

er and grabbe

er Hawthorn isn't even human. He's dangerous, and I froze. I didn't fight. I

aper with every word. Like she was try

go anywhere alone at night." "Don't trus

rt

how hard she worked just to be seen as good

to wear trousers until she turned sixteen. Makeup? Worldly. Parti

bout purity, sin, Jezebels and modesty. The way the church aunties would eye teenage girls who wore lip gloss l

small. Carefu

riptures instead

her gaze instead

ake her "clean," even though she ha

, and her mother had spent the last decade

uld say, tears in her eyes.

ght-A student. The prayer warrior. The soft-spoken girl who never questio

the surface.

le storm she ne

swallowed. Des

naled instead

t sometimes she wondered what it would feel like to not

reading a romance novel a classmate had smuggled in. She hadn't even made it half

didn't go away. Ne

h control, perfection,

ough, holy enough, maybe she could shu

il last

at her like she was a s

e church never told her what to do with. She wasn't su

wasn't who she was. She wasn't the girl w

t a long, cream-colored dress and threw on a jean jacket. Modest.

f, her phone buzzed.

ell me you're skipping the mentors

tote bag over her sh

was that fate wasn'

she thought she'

dy lookin