It's you in the future, we both know that. You'll be here but not here, a muscle memory, like hanging a hat on a hook that's not there any longer.

MARGARET ATWOOD / Invisible Man

Love is sacrifice. It's a knife you turn over and over again without complaints. An ache you can never satisfy. Rain always knew love was demanding in every way possible. It demands your full attention and you must give and give and give and never get enough back. It was a prayer, a begging to last forever. You give everything, and in the end, you don't have enough for yourself.

Rain's love was built in a sacred place: home. Home taught her that love will always leave you in the end. It's conditional. Every bone in her body demands self-destruction. It demands to starve itself. Be deprived of an emotion she can never reach. It's a Punishment for being the one who got away unscathed.

Do you love me, Rain?

Love is conditional. It never lasts. It leaves broken hearts and destruction in its wake. It's a never-ending cycle for each one of us. Rain curses him for saying everything out loud, and she curses herself for never knowing what to answer. There will always be a lover who ruins everything, and that was her.

Do you love me now, Rain?

Rain blinks and no words were said. A cycle she can never break, and questions left unanswered. A begging to be loved, and a begging for everything to stop. This is a tragedy. It has always been written down. History repeats itself in two lovers who built an empire with their own cruel words. A lover in his own right and a beggar in every piece of love story there is.

Malcolm can only ask again and again, and Rain will always dodge the question. Falling in love is always the fear and promise of being hurt, of being healed.

What is love to you, child of wisdom?

Malcolm tells her it's a confession, an original apology. He tells her that it's a bruise of honour.

Rain Kielman had always stood still, like a house on a hill, and she knows she wasn't made for love. She can look back two, three generations, as far as she can. She won't find love. Her father and his father and his father and so on, were incapable of such a thing. It was too hard to express anythinng. It's hereditary. And Rain can only break Malcolm's heart over and over again until he decided it was enough.

Malcolm Pace always gives too much, and Rain Kielman never gives enough.

Kristine Frøseth / RAIN KIELMAN

There must be a home to come back to
at the end of this journey. . .

Maxence Danet-Fauvel / MALCOLM PACE

&&&

Louis Partridge . . . Theodore Holloway
As Described . . . Robin Holloway
Whitney Peak . . . Erin Vance
Freya Mavor . . . Annabeth Chase
As Described . . . Percy Jackson
Angelina Jolie . . . Nike
Cillian Murphy . . . Ellis Kielman

note: I have no self-control. I'm obsessed with publishing books it's so fun but anyways, this book is the first part of the evergreen series and root of your issues is the second part. This book will make you guys know more about robin and the gang lolsies. I'd like to say that this would be like odyssey but i don't wanna lie. The timeline is set in botl and ends in the last olympian. The layout belongs to entrywounds so please ask before you use it! both rain and theo are the main characters of this book bc i genuinely made theo such a complex character and i love him so much and i want you guys to be able to understand him!

june 2024 republished!

dedications: fossil jules francii nina thena<3 clove ro Cat-light 92 anu BatgirlGeek venus sarah nikolina maddie MJ ladygladiators

warning: mentions of death, violence, blood and gore, cursing, mentions of trauma and PTSD, etc.