Chapter 24

• Alera’s POV
• Dread curled inside me like a coiled serpent, tightening its grip with each hesitant step I took toward the bed. My heart pounded against my ribs, an unsteady rhythm of fear and uncertainty. I had known this moment might come, had feared it in the darkest corners of my mind, but why now? Why when I had done everything in my power to prove my worth?
• I thought I had escaped this fate. By undergoing training, by becoming useful to the clan in any way I could. But I had been foolish to believe that was enough.