I was never anyone's first choice. My kind, the Sentinels, were always seen as outsiders. Too different. Too dangerous. Too unworthy of love. I learned early that no matter how much I gave, it would never be enough for those who only saw my kind as a threat. I was rejected not once, not twice, but more times than I could count. Still, I kept hoping someone would see me for who I was — not what I was born as.
That hope led me to Leonardo.
When I met him, I didn't know who he was. I didn't care. He wasn't like the others. He didn't treat me like I was less. And even when his words cut deep, his actions stayed soft. He fought to love me, and I fought to believe it was real.
But loving a man like Leonardo came with its price.
His world didn't want me in it. His mother, Eleanor Khian, made that clear. She humiliated me, insulted me, and tried to push me out like I was some filthy stain on their perfect image. But I stayed. Not because of pride. Not even for love. I stayed because, by then, I knew I was carrying a life inside me.
A life I chose to protect, even when the doctors told me it would kill me. I had already made peace with death. I had seen enough of it to no longer fear it. But I couldn't let my child go. She wasn't just a baby. She was the last thing I could give this world. My last fight. My final legacy.
I didn't tell Leonardo I was sick. I didn't want pity or forced love. And I didn't tell his family that I was having a daughter. I knew they wouldn't accept her. A girl. A half-blood. A child of a Sentinel.
When the day came and I gave birth, I knew it was over for me. My body was shutting down. But Eleanor came. Not with sympathy. Not with respect. She came to attack me again. And even in that moment, with my body broken and bleeding, she still wanted to destroy me.
But I had one thing left. One thing stronger than death itself — my spirit.
I looked her in the eye and told her the truth. That if she ever harmed my daughter, or abandoned her, I would make sure that child found her way. I would use the last power inside me to bind myself to her soul. I would guide her. Protect her. And I would curse Eleanor with the weight of what she had done.
I told her I was reborn in my child. That she would not suffer as I did. That every hardship I endured would become her strength. And I meant every word.
I died that day. But I didn't leave.
My spirit became part of my daughter. My Hannah.
They thought they had buried me. But they only planted what would rise again.
And this time, no one will silence her.