Azaliyah stayed quiet for a few seconds after that while the firelight flickered softly across the clearing. The sarcasm had faded from Shezayah’s voice near the end without her meaning for it to, and somehow that made the silence afterward feel heavier than the fighting earlier had.
Then Azaliyah asked quietly, “Do you even know what she looks like?”
Shezayah’s eyes lifted toward her again.
The answer came immediately.
“No.”
The word settled flatly between them.
Not angry.
Not emotional.
Just honest.
Azaliyah looked down briefly after that before reaching beneath the collar of her shirt and pulling free a thin silver chain Shezayah hadn’t paid much attention to earlier. Hanging from it was a small worn locket, scratched around the edges like it had been opened hundreds of times b
