And there she was. The aether that had been twirling and swivelling around her rippled and faded in golden glitter as Inez opened her eyes. Unlike the other sirens, she didn’t have better control over her magical abilities yet. The second she lost control, it would disappear, but at least it got the work done.
"What are you doing here?" Inez questioned, taking Selene by surprise. The woman was sitting by the small pond that was hidden deep in the forest. "Don’t tell me you came this far to see the stars?"
She noticed that Selene’s hands were tightly clenched in her lap. From her tense shoulders to the hard gritting of her teeth, Inez could see that something had happened when she and Laxus left her. Something that stepped on Selene’s pride, and yet the woman couldn’t counter because of her pitiful condition.
Inez sat down on the floor and started speaking, "You know, when I was a kid, my mother never took me to any parties. I even missed that big quinceañera—she told me that I didn’t deserve it for being a monster."
"Monster?" Selene turned to look down at Inez, who nodded with a smile on her face.
"Yes", Inez looked at the sparkling stars in the sky and sighed. "Usually, shifters only take the properties of one of their parents, but I was an exception. Somehow, I inherited the abilities of both of my parents. I was a shifter and you know..." she trailed off. "My mom couldn’t accept it; she couldn’t believe that she gave birth to a freak. She wanted normal, or as normal as she could get, when she didn’t — she lost her control."
Though people told her that memories would fade, and so would the scars, Inez didn’t quite believe it. How could the scars of the past fade when she still remembered the berating words that her mother said to her?
"But that’s wrong!" Selene snapped with a frown on her face. "It was not your fault that such a thing happened. You couldn’t choose what you are—if anything, it’s your mother’s fault for getting entangled with someone she had no idea about." There was very little known about sirens. Thus, it wasn’t anyone’s fault but Mrs Sinclair’s for getting involved with someone she knew nothing about.
"You are right," Inez agreed with her. She pulled her knees close to her chest and placed her hands on top of her knees. "Just like none of this is your fault. It’s not your fault that you were poisoned, nor is it your fault that you are in a wheelchair. You shouldn’t let others guide your life, you know?"
Selene stiffened. In her understanding, she knew that Killian would have told Inez all about what happened between her, Laxus and his brother. She knew that he would tell Inez about it, and she wasn’t against it, nor was she unhappy about it. It wasn’t a secret to begin with.
She sighed and turned to look away before saying to Inez, "I know. It just feels weird. There was a time when I was held in reverence. Just like how Killian is at the moment. Everyone thought that I would be the first female alpha of my pack and that Killian would follow me as my beta. But then all of a sudden..." She dropped her gaze to her legs, which were as useful as a cotton ball in a blazing forest fire. "I know it’s not anyone’s fault, but it’s still a bit of a change for me to accept the sudden mockery and taunts from others."
"One day you will get better and then you can kick them all in their arse for causing you so much pain. It won’t happen tonight or tomorrow, but someday it will." Inez assured the woman and at the same time realised the burden that she was carrying on her shoulders. A burden that she wasn’t close to solving. "What you can do is prove to these bastards that you are still the same Selene Sokolov. Even if you are no longer the huntress who could kill several coyotes and foxes with one quick move, you are still the same person. The same courage still resides in your heart. If you run, then they will forget the glory that they had once spoken about with great relish."
Selene’s eyes studied her carefully before she shook her head. She said, "I don’t know about that, Inez. The fact that I succumbed to the lies of a man is enough to prove that I was a fool like every other woman."
"You were not a fool. You were alive. Only the dead will remain unmoved in the face of promises and affection. And it’s not like you believed the words that he said to you," said Inez. She paused and then added, "Why don’t you try to learn something from your brother?"
"Yes. Killian." Inez recalled how the man had stood in front of her and growled at Dominic. "He is not afraid of the consequences and does whatever he wants that makes him happy. He would rather get what he wants than worry about what will happen to him or what others might do to him. You should live your life like that, and if you cannot take your brother as your prime example, then you can take me."
"People call me names out there, and yet I live my life like I want to; even if I cannot fight them, at least I am living my life without worrying about their name-calling. What’s the worst they could do?" She curled her lips and looked up at Selene. "Call you something worse? Will you lose your flesh if they do that?"
When Selene didn’t say anything, Inez said to her, "And you should be glad that the trash is taking itself out. The more they act up, the more you realise what kind of person you want to be involved with, Selene."
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