NARINE
I had been breathing too fast.
Each inhale was like broken glass dragged down my throat. And no matter how tightly I fisted the fabric of my gown, or how many times I reminded myself that I came here by choice, that I had chosen this path, I couldn’t shake the tremor in my knees. My legs had turned brittle, and I wasn’t sure if it was fear or adrenaline holding me upright anymore.
The Alphamaja was close now. I knew she had known long before now that I was here but she gave no inclination of it.
She was only two women away now.
I watched her lips move, polite and poised, her words clipped with the elegance only royalty could wear like a second skin. She’d just turned her head and dismissed the maiden with the softest tilt of her chin that sent the girl shrinking backward into t
