Eve’s voice stirred, quieter now but edged with warning. “You see? They circle us like wolves around prey. One mistake, and they’ll tear us apart. You cannot trust anyone here.”
“I know,” I answered her silently, scanning the corridor first to be sure no one was watching. The guards had already turned their eyes away, but I still felt the weight of suspicion pressing on my back. Only then did I reach up, adjusting the mask where their hands had yanked at it. My sunglasses had slipped crooked, and I fixed them with trembling fingers, forcing my breathing to steady. “But for Myra’s sake, we have to endure it.”
Her growl softened, though it didn’t fade. “Endure, yes. Trust, never.”
She was right. Rowan’s promise should have reassured me, but it didn’t. I had lived too long knowing loyalty
