Amane still could not bring herself to completely abandon Dianna.
Duty still had its hand on her but for the first time in her life, something inside her was asking for more than that.
It was asking her to be selfish. To stop treating her own life as something she could casually throw away for someone else's sake, and to choose, for once, to live.
And that change had one name.
Jax.
A man who had been thrown from one den of monsters into another, who had more than enough reasons to save himself and disappear, yet had still taken the risk of sneaking out of the Central Royal Palace just to reach her and tell her the truth.
Dianna's plan to obtain the Royal Army had failed. There was no longer any path left where she could realistically win, and he had risked himself just to make sure Amane knew it.
The words he had spoken to her a few nights ago returned again and again. "You don't have to carry this alone anymore. I promise I'll find a way for us, and I'll protect you."
