Chapter 14.

Fear doesn't shut you down; it wakes you up

― Veronica Roth

Jamie was yelling for reasons Catherine couldn't quite understand. She'd just told him that Pitch wasn't the worst thing in the world and now he was shouting at her, something about the Guardians and how Pitch had hurt them and tried to get him and Sophie and all of his friends. Catherine lost her patients after almost five full minutes.

"Jamie Bennett I have had it up to here with you!" she shouted.

It had started because Jamie had been recounting the story of the battle with Pitch to her again, this time with the help of the visiting Jack, North and Bunny, who she had taken to called Aster instead.

The Guardians were tense, staring wide eyed at her. She had never yelled around them. Not once. She had also never looked so dark than right then, her face shadowed with thought.

"Hope, Wonder, Fun, those are all important, yes, but I learned a lesson a long time ago that I pray you never have to know," she stared down at her cousin, showing no emotion to him.

"A lesson?" he asked wearily. He seemed almost afraid of her.

"Terror is the most important thing that a human being can feel. When you find a place where joy and optimism aren't enough, when memories and dreams bring only pain, it's fear that keeps you alive."

When she turned on her heel to storm away she didn't see the horror or the guilt on the Guardians faces, or the shine of eyes in the corner of the room.