✦Dolly✦
I heard my parents talking long after midnight. It had been three days since that night, and I couldn’t sleep. The truth was that I hadn’t been able to sleep properly since the nightmare. Every time I closed my eyes, I felt the darkness closing around me again. I heard that voice sliding through the silence.
Vaelyra.
My demon name.
The name that apparently belonged to a part of me I had never wanted to look at too closely. I sat on the floor beside my bedroom door, knees pulled to my chest, listening to the low murmur of voices coming from my parents’ bedroom. They thought I was asleep, which is why they spoke softly, but not soft enough. I could hear them clearly.
“I don’t want her hearing this,” my mother said.
“Neither do I,” my father replied. “But she will find out eve
