For so long, I kept her on a pedestal," he says, "holding her in the highest regard. I think it was because of how high I raised her, how high we all raised her, that I couldn't see her for what she is. Turns out my admiration only serves the show, the act, the game she's playing with all of us. With the entire Land of Five. Now that I see past it, all of it, it's clear. She's poison masquerading as medicine.

Silence reveals everything.

I fold my arms across my chest, staring at him with all the fire and strength a broken girl can possibly manage.

Fear was something that Sam was relatively adept at handling. She knew the two main kinds like the back of her hand—the fear that makes a person run and the fear that makes them fight. She didn’t particularly care for either, but the worst of the them was the fear that didn’t fit either of those categories—the fear so paralyzing it shut the brain down completely.

She hadn’t felt any emotion until he touched her, but then she found herself blinking back the tears and forcing herself to say, “It’s okay.” And it was. In a way. She could hardly remember it, but the flashes that stayed with her through the years were painful.

I like my scars, they show I fight back.

I don't want to be a kitten anymore. Give me my honorary claws so I can become a lion.