He couldn’t help it. Ever since that night, questions gnawed at him. What kind of girl wandered alone in the Uncharted Territories, a place even the most hardened mercenaries feared to tread? What kind of child could be hunted by assassins, yet stand her ground and survive?
No ordinary girl her age could take down a pack of trained killers. That much was certain.
And yet here she was—wrapped in warmth and softness, standing beneath moonlight like something fragile and untouchable.
Zaki didn’t press further. But he knew—behind her silence lay a story carved from blood and shadows.
Silence ensued between them. For a moment, Zaki Lee thought he shouldn’t have asked the intimate question.
“I’m an orphan,” Easther said flatly, her tone matter-of-fact rather than pitiful. “A wealthy man ado
