It wasn't that you loved Bo more than Nadia. It was just that wherever Nadia was warm and tender, Bo was fire and temptation. You remember looking into Nadia's eyes that day she almost killed you. Seeing her love for you buried beneath the control of the Garuda. Or perhaps that was the pain of your betrayal.

For five years you scrabbled around looking for a cure that was non-existent. The Ash had you enslaved with you none the wiser. For five years you were alone with Nadia and your thoughts. You were human and they were Fae; you couldn't just mingle with them and hope to make friends. You had to trust they weren't going to eat you. So you thought it best to stay cooped up in your lab with your comatose girlfriend.

Sometimes you try to delude yourself into thinking that you kept company with Bo because she was there. You try to reason your way through different stages of grief, but it always comes down to one simple truth; she was just there. And to think, if only the Ash hadn't commanded you that night, things might have been different. You might have been different. There would have been no fire to cleanse your heart. No temptation to lead you back into the light.

What was it Bo said that night? Nobody owns you. At the time you thought she was slandering the Ash; it was only when the end was in sight that you actually began to hope it was true. Bo was fire and temptation. She was hope and redemption. Perhaps in the end, Nadia was what you wanted, but Bo was what you needed.

She was a chance to start over. A chance to start again.


Lauren's such a tragic character. Ah, well. Thanks for reading!