The thing is that underneath we are all humans…Everyone has people they love and people they want to protect, everyone has things they are afraid of … - Tomi Adeyemi

Growing up, Father led me to believe that those who clung to the myth of the gods were weak. They relied on beings they could never see, dedicating their lives to faceless entities.

A pit of guilt opens in my chest, tainted with the smell of burning flesh. The fires I watched from the royal palace resurface, the innocent lives burned before my young eyes. A memory I’ve pushed down like my magic, a day I longed to forget. But staring at Zélie now brings it all back: the pain. The tears. The death.

I don't know what shocks me more--- the power in my voice or the words themselves