MY MIND DRIFTED WHILE MAERI laced me into a gown. Alek didn't force conversation, simply offered his arm and we walked to the dining room. Sian, Kassie, and Loi wore the same look of resignation and acceptance that I knew I bore.
Dinner wasn't awful but occasionally, when the conversation paused, I needed to squeeze a hand tight under the table, nails cutting into my palm, when my mind conjured up images of Deas.
He was only fourteen.
As old as my cousinsorry Alek's cousinon Earth. I knew that boys and girls too, were expected to grow up fast on Gar'nyse, but a fourteen-year-old fighting for his life against that witch? The image brought unwelcome tears to my eyes and I quickly glanced high, staring at the lamps hanging above while blinking the tears away. Anger simmered within me. Befo
