Although she told herself that she wouldn't take it to heart, deep down inside she was secretly a little hurt.
It was never easy to be looked at like a monster, especially when you believed you had left those stares behind. Raelia thought she had escaped that kind of attention, but the more she tried to ignore the feeling, the more suffocating it became.
She had hoped to leave those piercing, judgmental gazes in her past, but somehow, they had followed her even here.
"What if..."
Raelia didn't want to look. She was afraid of confirming her worst fears, but her head turned anyway, almost against her will. Slowly, her gaze rose toward the stands, and her eyes locked onto a young man with glowing amber eyes and tousled blonde hair.
But instead of the disgust and fear that hung on the faces of the other trainees, his face held something entirely different—an excited and radiant smile.
