The Serpent and the Wings of Night (Crowns of Nyaxia, #1)

by Carissa Broadbent

And then I realized. I realized that fear, when embraced, hardens and sharpens. That it becomes rage. That it becomes power.

There are moments in one’s life that remain permanently distilled in memory. Some wither within minutes, and others are carved forever into our souls.

Strange, that girls are so often told that the loss of their virginity marks a threshold between girlhood and womanhood, as if it fundamentally alters them in some way. It was not the sex that changed the girl forever. Not the blood that spilled between her thighs that shaped her. The blood that spilled over that marble floor, though… Those are the stains on one’s innocence that never fade.