For a long moment, Selena stood frozen, flames crackling around her hands, the weight of impossible choice pressing down on her shoulders. The Last Rebel waited with arms spread, confident in his trap, certain that whatever she decided would validate his arguments. Behind her, Mira and the refugees from Ashborne watched with desperate hope that she would solve this problem the way she had solved all the others—by burning it away.
But through her bond with Dante, Selena felt something shift. He was reaching a conclusion, working through the problem from his guardian's perspective, seeing something she had missed in her focus on principles and refusal.
"He's lying," Dante said suddenly, his voice cutting through the tension. "Not about everything. Not about people choosing him or his authority functioning. But about the fundamental nature of what he is."
