Alaria:
The first thing I felt was warmth, soft and heavy against my side.
Then the faint scent of something familiar. Smoke and pine. Though I knew deep down that it was not the scent that I wanted to have. Nor was it the one that I wanted to be around.
When my eyes fluttered open, the ceiling wasn’t the same one I remembered from my room. The air here was cleaner, sharper, humming with the quiet rhythm of medical machines. A muted ache pulsed at the back of my skull, and for a few seconds, I couldn’t remember how I’d gotten here.
Then I heard it…
a small voice, broken with worry.
“Mama.”
I turned my head too quickly. Dizziness swept through me, but I blinked until the blur cleared. I did not want her to see me this way.
Anastasia was there, her hair tangled, her small fingers clu
