CIAN
For a moment she fought them with surprising strength. Not like a warrior, not with skill, but with the desperate energy of someone who had already decided she had nothing left to lose.
Then she lifted her head.
Only then did I realize it was Beta Teagan.
Ronan's mother.
I had seen her many times over the years. She had always carried herself with quiet dignity. Calm and composed in a way that made others trust her without thinking about it.
The woman standing in front of me now barely resembled that memory.
Her dark hair had come loose from whatever braid or knot she had worn earlier and now hung in tangled strands around her face. Dirt streaked across the sleeves of her dress and smeared along one cheek as though she had fallen more than once on her way here. The fabric was wrinkled and creased, the hem dark with dust.
But it was her eyes that held me.
They were wild.
Red rimmed, glassy with tears she was trying and failing to hold back.
She saw me.
