Aveline knew from the way the Chancellor had spoken her name that he knew something.
Something about her parents.
"Ava!" Aelion shouted from behind her. "We need to leave. More guards are coming!"
Aveline barely heard him. She leaned closer to the Chancellor, who was gasping desperately for air. His face had turned blue, his chest crushed beneath the relentless pressure of the earth. Every breath came harder than the last.
She wanted answers. That was all.
She wanted to know why her parents had died such a cruel death. Why they had been taken from her without ever knowing whether their daughter would be spared and knowing that even if she was spared, their beloved daughter would be left to grow up alone, without the two people who had loved her most.
What had her kind, loving parents done to deserve such a fate?
