When they arrived, they knocked on the door, and Mia hesitated before answering. She had been sitting on the floor crying while Gabriel screamed upstairs. By the time she opened it, they were already moving past her. They went upstairs, grabbed him, and dragged him out of the house. Mia didn’t follow. She stayed frozen in the doorway as they threw Gabriel into the back of the truck. He landed hard and looked up to see nine other men packed in beside him. Some faces were famil

Her mother had told her this day would come. Said it plain, like weather. “Mia, you just too soft, chile. You let folks run clean over you. Ain’t no doubt you gon have to submit a man to the Wakening one day. Most women do. I swear, if we had it back when I was young, it would’ve saved me a heap of heartache. Back then, we let ’em get away with too much.” Mia never believed in the Wakening. She thought it was unnecessary and outdated. It had been twenty years since the Decree

Mia wore weary like a perfectly fitted dress, the kind worn by women who let life live them instead of living it. Fatigue lived in her face, heavy enough that her eyelids drooped into her vision. But today, she saw clearly. Today her copper eyes were round, dilated, and full of eagerness. The day had come. “How did I get here?” was the only thought that kept circling her mind. She looked calm, but her cocoa-colored skin, which once glowed and bounced sunlight back like beams,