I hated that I sounded so vulnerable—in front of the triplets, no less.
I hated that the room was so quiet, that they must have heard the small quiver in my voice, how I tried to hold back my tears.
I hated that, in that moment, I was everything the elder had condemned in her speech.
Kade gave me a strange look—one that, if I didn’t know him better, I might have assumed was... pity.
I didn’t dignify him with a glance. Nor did I to Theron, who had his eyes pinned on me, burning a hole into the side of my face.
Instead, I hugged my knees.
“Child,” Elder Drusilla sighed, sympathy laced in that one syllable. “Do you have such little faith in yourself? Do you think the caterpillar knows it will one day fly?
"The Lunas who came before you don’t just tell a story of brutal deaths, but al
