My feet thumped against the forest floor, dizziness slowly creeping through my head, heart pounding loudly in my chest and yet I couldn’t figure out where I was running. It was so difficult, so paranoid to think that he was coming for me. Though Kai hadn’t said the words, I knew, that the moment he would be back, Xerxes would be coming for me.

The thought scare the thought of living inside me. All the efforts Augustus made to keep me alive were now in vain. I was again at the beginning, running for my life from the one who was supposed to protect me with his life.

A strangled...