(Daciana POV)
My heart twisted because Tala knew me too well, and Ashina had once spoken the same truth in cruelty.
Mercy could move me.
Love could be used against me.
But that did not mean I would let it become a shame.
I stepped toward the crown, and the red stones answered my movement with a glow that made every wolf pull back.
Bardolph’s breath caught behind me, and the living bond carried his terror before he could swallow it down.
“Daciana,” he said, carefully enough not to make my name a command.
I did not look at him because I could not afford the weakness of understanding his fear right now.
“I will not let Tala’s blood choose for me,” I said, looking at the crown as if my mother’s ghost could hear every word.
“And I will not let my sister’s pain become Adolphus’s knife
