“No, you didn’t have to.” He dropped the carton on the nightstand beside me.

“What do you think they are going to do with her?” I rubbed my face with both hands, holding back my tears.

I kept recalling the horrible state I saw her in.

How do I save her?

“Now that everyone has come together, they are all going to mark her one after the other. And I think you know this already, that the reason they all came is that Wendy had come of age.”

“What’s stopping them?!”

“Stopping them?!”

“Yes, why are they hesitating? I saw Kellan earlier when I went to—”

“They are all waiting...