Elyse pov
The guards’ hands on my arms were firm but not brutal.
I could have fought. Could have burned them. Could have unleashed the power coiled beneath my skin and turned this entire assembly ground into an inferno.
But there were children in the crowd. Women who’d already lost everything. Innocent people who’d done nothing except try to survive.
I wouldn’t hurt them. Not even to save myself.
So I let them drag me away.
“Move,” one guard said, not unkindly. “Don’t make this harder than it has to be.”
Harder than it had to be. Like there was an easy version of this nightmare.
I kept my head down as they led me through the camp. Felt hundreds of eyes watching. Judging. Probably relieved it was me and not them.
Mira was somewhere in that crowd. Would she think I’d lied to her? U
