Kinza woke to the sound of birds tweeting. On any other day, she might have enjoyed the innocent sound, but she had slept fitfully last night and wished she could block out the sound with noise-canceling headphones or something.
She groaned into the pillow before deciding to get up. The sun wasn’t quite over the horizon yet, so she took the time to quickly bathe, hoping it would invigorate her before she needed to meet with the Elders. She had no idea what she was going to say to them or what they would say to her. They hadn’t had another meeting with all of them since the morning after the attack.
She went about her morning routine, washing and dressing in a turquoise outfit with indigo and gold stitching. The entire time, though, she was thinking about Zaid instead of the Elders. Had h
