EMIRIEL
The afternoon sun streamed through the window of my office, but I barely noticed it. My eyes were fixed on the papers scattered across my desk. reports, accounts of the mysterious deaths but the words blurred together, meaningless.
I couldn’t move past her words from yesterday.
I came here because I had no choice.
I was sent here as a spy.
I’ve told you everything.
Her voice echoed in my mind, sharp and defiant and tinged with something that might have been pain. But she’d delivered it all so coldly, so matter-of-factly, like she’d moved past caring whether we believed her or not.
Like she’d given up.
And that bothered me more than it should have.
My beast stirred restlessly beneath my skin, a constant gnawing presence that had only gotten worse since last night.
The mom
