SERAPHINA'S POV
The training room clock had long since blurred into meaningless numbers. Hours? Minutes? Time didn't matter—only the burn in my muscles, the raw ache of my knuckles, the way my lungs screamed for air but got none.
Each jab carried Celeste's sneer: "You're not worth the effort."
Every hook bore Kieran's venom: "You never mattered."
I hit harder. Faster. Letting the pain overwrite them like a virus corrupting old files.
If I stopped, even for a second, I'd hear them. I'd feel the stabbing agony of their words.
I couldn't afford that. If I let the words sink in, they would take root. Grow branches. Vines. Wrap around me and choke me from within—
"Damn, what did that poor dummy ever do to you?"
I startled, whipping around to find Maya by the door, just like she'd been the first day we met.
I was panting so hard, I couldn't answer her, and that split second of distraction brought the venom back.
'You were a mistake, Sera.'
