Self and the shadow (excerpt)

He watched as i took bold steps severing the ties from my former shadow, I was not afraid any more, i would march into glory, the serpent would not rattle my skin, i would canvas this place with joy and the dimples of my delight. For much had changed. I had become a woman now, i was not afraid of him. Augustus eyed me with two lazy brown eyes , he quirked a brow as he leaned over the table in the small cafeteria. I should have been with Mack, or Ezra, yet i was here with suspicious Augustus, who had a way of seeing me right underneath the skin. "He been beating you huh?"
"Yeah,"i confessed. he rubbed a swollen finger over my soft green eye. It was black around the lid, half the girls would kill to be in my shoes, "sometimes," he spoke cooly, "we beat on ourselves also."