ELLIE’S POV
“You’re really going through with this?”
Lira’s voice wavered like the flame of the single candle flickering on the counter. Her hands moved automatically, still sorting bundles of dried herbs into neat piles, though I could see the faint tremor in her fingers. She glanced up, her eyes catching mine—wide, dark with worry, searching for some sign that I might reconsider.
“You know how dangerous it is,” she whispered. “You could be caught or even worse.”
Her words hung in the small room like smoke, heavy and suffocating.
I straightened slowly, adjusting the leather strap across my chest where my blade rested. The hilt was cool beneath my fingers, grounding me. “I know exactly how dangerous it is,” I said, my voice steady even as a storm twisted inside me. “I lived under him
