Moni stared at her best friend as he turned away from them, dropping the mask he had so carefully pulled across his features. She could feel the tremble of his hand and could see the clenching of the muscles of his arm as he gripped her hand. She had never seen him like this; he was always so controlled and so strong whenever he faced an impossible situation, but this? It had been a long time since she had seen him lose any of his rigid self-control, and she had never seen that look on his face before—that gut-clenching look of absolute desolation.

She knew the others in the room...