*Ethan*

I look at Rylee, wishing she were safe at the castle but also knowing that there’s no way she would stay behind and wait for me. But I realize from the look in her eyes that, once again, she doesn’t intend to go directly into battle.

“There are innocents around here,” she says. “I’m going to get as many people to safety as I can.”

We kiss deeply but quickly, and once again, I watch her run away and take hold of a woman with a small child. The woman is just standing there paralyzed in the middle of the road watching all the fighting around her.

Rylee isn’t...