Chapter 58 - Nyx

“Ugh, child. You smell like wet dog. We didn’t you bathe before coming to dinner?” the Red One, my mother, complains.

“I apologize, Red One. The she-wolf is feeling poorly and I had to care for her, as well as clean her portion of the cell.” Just because she has claimed me as her daughter in front of our enemies and this spell is all for my “benefit,” that doesn’t mean that I can speak to her as if she were my mother. She is now and has always been the Red One to me. I haven’t called ehr mother since she backhanded me so hard that I fell down a flight of stairs. I think I was six then.

Even with my limited understanding of family dynamics, I know that isn’t something that a loving parent is supposed to do.

I have rarely, if ever, been shown any affection in this coven. The first time was by a nanny who had been proud of three year old me for solving an addition problem. She had picked me up, hugging me toward her chest. When my mother came in and saw me in the other wo