Azura's POV
I could not look away from Amanda.
The woman standing before me in the bright, unforgiving afternoon sun was a cruel ghost of the past, completely stripped of the sweet little girl I used to hold close.
She was older now. Taller. Harder.
The soft, familiar curves of her childhood face had sharpened into rigid lines under the wide-open sky.
Her eyes held absolutely no warmth, no memory, and no recognition.
When she looked across the patch of dry dirt separating us, she didn't see a sister who had spent agonizing months searching for her.
She didn't see a mother. She only saw an enemy that needed to be eliminated.
The heavy silence of the outdoor clearing was thick with tension, the high midday sun casting stark, blunt shadows on the grass.
Every rustle of the surrounding leaves felt loud, like a warning we were choosing to ignore.
"What did you just say?" Torin's voice cut through the warm breeze, sharp, urgent, and laced with disbelief.
