Chapter 16
The Price of Power
Anastasia grappled with the duality of her nature. Was she a monster, or a protector? The line between them blurred with every heart she took, every soul she saved.
The scent of salt and decay had become a permanent fixture in my nostrils, a phantom perfume clinging to my clothes, my skin, my very soul. It was the smell of the ocean, yes, but now it was also the smell of what I had become. I stood on the jagged rocks, the wind whipping my hair into a frenzy, mirroring the tempest that raged within me. Below, the waves crashed with a violence that echoed the chaos of my own heart. Each roar was a reminder of the power that surged through me, a power I still struggled to command, a power that had saved me, and damned me, in equal measure.
"Are you going to stand there all day, little bird?" Grandma S’s voice, a gentle balm against the harsh wind, drifted from the path leading down to our cottage. She carried a basket, its contents hidden beneath a checkered cloth, and her presence was a steady beacon in the swirling storm of my grief and burgeoning monstrosity.
I turned, forcing a smile that felt brittle, like sea-worn glass. "Just… thinking, Grandma."
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