Elara’s POV
Now, sitting alone in this dingy room at the inn, I turn the vial over in my hands, my brow furrowed in confusion.
Why would he do that? Why would someone who said I was annoying, who called me the most irritating person he’d ever met, who told me I was nothing but a burden desperate for scraps of affection—why would that same person use something so expensive just to help me heal?
His words still echo in my mind, sharp and cutting:
“You’re so desperate to be wanted that you’ll settle for the first person who shows you basic kindness. You think gratitude is the same thing as love.”
He was cruel. Deliberately, methodically cruel, listing all my faults like he was reading from a ledger. He made it clear that everything about me was irritating, that my very existence was a bu
