Aveline pressed her lips together and fought to hold back her tears.
It was too much. Too sudden. Too humiliatingly raw.
To see Theron standing there beside another woman, calm and composed, while looking at her with that faintly confused expression as though she had somehow wandered into a place she had no right to be.
Yes, she had not been where she was supposed to be. She knew that. But did he have to look at her like that? Like he was trying to decide whether she belonged there at all?
Something inside her tightened painfully.
She did not want to stay a moment longer.
She turned to leave, only to feel a hand catch her wrist.
For one single, heartbreaking instant, hope flared in her chest.
Theron.
She thought, absurdly and desperately, that it might be him stopping her. That he might have noticed the hurt on her face. That he might explain, or at least ask whether she was all right after nearly being consumed by that so-called divine fire.
But it was not him.
