¬ Hiln
No. Why was she looking at me like that?
I wasn't making a reckless decision.
"I am growing stronger." The words tumbled out faster now, desperate. "Whatever is happening to me, whatever I am becoming—I can feel it. I can protect you and keep us safe with it. If we could just run and find somewhere to hide, somewhere they will never find us—"
"I cannot do that."
The quiet finality of her words stopped me cold.
"What?"
"I cannot leave." Becca stepped back, her hands sliding from mine. "Hiln, I am on a contract… just like every other servant. If I abandon my post, especially at the royal castle, I will be branded a criminal. The nobles also know our families. Mine too. If they realise I have left my post and run, they know where my family lives. I fear they will suffer for it."
The weight of her words settled over me.
I had not thought of that. In my desperation to escape, to try and save her, I had not considered that she might have chains of her own.
