Chapter 5 · free to read
Every witch at Hexbloom casts off her own will. I had never managed it once. Not at seven, not at seventeen.
No borrowed hearts. Nothing but mine, and mine had never once been enough.
I stopped thinking about the curse. For one whole second I thought about a boy sitting in the dark with an unopened book.
Sixth Petal. The first rank of my life, and it cost one thorn-petal off the pendant, burned black and never coming back. Nobody warns you that the ranks are paid for in pieces.
Artwork and narration generated with AI.