My heart clenches in pain thinking back to how I was used by Sixten. I will never allow myself to be used like that again. Looking up at Flavius, I give a weak smile.     "I met Sixten, my first love, eight years ago, shortly after Fafnir died,” I begin to tell.      Flavius stares down at me thoughtfully, urging me to continue.       "He came to my horde to conduct business with my father. When I met him, he was charming, graceful, and overall beautiful. He was so exotic, so different. That is what drew me in. But it was all a façade; he only got close to me in order to use me, and I was so young and in so much pain I allowed it to happen. I allowed myself to be used, then thrown away. But he did not get away unscathed," I say, cracking a cynical smile.     "What exactly did you do to him?" Flavius asks with an arched brow.     "After telling me that I was

  I awake the next morning cuddled into my soft white sheets. I am first aware of the soft fading moonlight casting a silver glow in my room. Slowly and reluctantly, I uncover my body. Sitting up, I drag my feet off of the bed and rub my knuckles into my eyes. I stretch my arms above my head and yawn.      Pulling myself off the bed, I brush my hair and clothe myself and just like yesterday, I decide to walk to the lake instead of fly. Leaving the castle, I head into the woods that I have come to love so much. The woods surrounding the city remind me of the forest around the horde. It is places like this that I feel most at home. I am surrounded by beauty and silence, but most of all I am alone. Here I do not have to deal with people's harsh words or judgmental stares: I am alone and at peace.     In the forest, there is a sense of kinship with the flora, of an ancient soul that stretches into everything that lives. It is here under the

Flavius      I lay in bed as the sun rises, an opening to the third day I haven’t seen Ellie. For the past three days, I've been hard at work training with Soren, eagerly waiting for Ellie to quickly finish her work at the castle. Three days ago, Ellie came to me telling me how she was going to discuss something important with the king, and I haven't seen her since. Soren told me the day after that, she was rushing the wedding planning in order to get a day off.       Last I spoke with Ellie, she was preparing to tell the king of his wife's affair. I can't help but worry, as she must have struggled to tell him such sensitive information. The king is one of the people Ellie respects most. To most, Ellie presents herself as this confident, spitefully angry person, who stands on top of the world. While that may be a part of her, that is not her true self. I see her differently; she's shown me another side of herself. The anger in her eyes s