Finally, I found my voice again. “For a long time, I’ve felt as if I was only surviving. Living as punishment from the Goddess. I’ve wished for death countless times, searched for it in every crevice of this forest. But it’s been elusive. Rejected me every time I thought I’d found it. But now...” I whispered, my thumb still tracing across her lower lip. “Simone, you’ve given me the will to live.”
The truth of those words hit me in the chest. For the first time, I wanted to see tomorrow. I wanted to feel sunshine on my skin and taste food and maybe even laugh again. I wanted to live, not just exist in a fog of guilt and self-hatred.
And it was all because of her.
She was my little miracle. My salvation wrapped in honey-colored hair and green eyes that saw past the monster I’d believed my
