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Graeson looked at his old friend, and an iciness coated his skin, dulling the anger. “Dani,” he whispered.
Dani refused to look at him. She sucked her teeth, holding back the tears that were beginning to fill the corners of her eyes.
Graeson wanted to shake the sadness out of her. Instead, he approached her like he would approach one of his horses. Slowly and with careful movements. “Dani, it wasn’t her. You need to understand that.”
She scrubbed her face with her palm, a red hue tinting her brown skin. When her hand dropped, her green eyes finally met his, and there was no life left inside of them, only an endless coldness that was all-consuming. “Are you truly that lovesick? Shebroughtthem here, Gray.”
His blood heated, melting the ice coating his body. He brought his fist back and slammed it into the training dummy. Hay exploded from its head.
So many had told him it was Kalisandre’s fault. No one believed him, no matter what he said or how he tried to defend Kalisandre. No one understood why Graeson still wanted to help her. Why he thought she was worth saving at all.
“That wasn’t her, and you know it,” he said, marking each word with a punch.
“Graeson, she was achildwhen we knew her. People change. Kallie isn’t the person we thought she was.” Dani sighed, gathering her braids into a ponytail. “She’s not one of us anymore.”
With no hay left in the dummy, Graeson’s hands hung at his side. His entire body trembled with anger. “There’s something wrong with her. When—”
“Graeson,” Dani said, interrupting as she untied the dummy from the pole and let the disheveled fabric fall to the ground.
Graeson shook his head, pressing his hands against the sides of his head. “Listento me.”
Pity filled Dani’s gaze.
Graeson tried to blink away the pain, but he couldn’t. He needed Dani to hear him, to believe him.
“Please,” he begged.
Rubbing her face, Dani spun away from him, and his heart sank. Dani was one of his best friends. She was one of the few people in this world Graeson thought would have understood where he was coming from, but even she appeared to have given up on him.
Graeson wanted to save Kalisandre, but he couldn’t do it alone. He had hoped that if he could convince Dani to help him, he could convince the others.
She was the one hope he had, and now it walked away with her.
“When we were at the cavern, she was . . . different,” Graeson whispered, afraid to speak too loudly lest he scare Dani away. “I know it sounds strange or that I’m looking into something that isn’t there, but her . . . her aura was different. She was lighter, like a fog was being lifted from her mind.”
Dani mumbled something unintelligible, and Graeson froze, unsure if he heard her correctly. Then, Dani spun around and said one word that gave him an ounce of hope: “Fine.”
And Graeson latched onto it—as abysmal as the line of hope was, he would grab onto it as if his life depended on it because it did.
And so did Kalisandre’s.
Dani squinted, her head tilting to the side as she leaned against the pole. “Maybe you’re right, but maybe you’re wrong. I mean this with love, Gray, but you sound crazy.” The corner of her mouth twitched. “And I know crazy.”
“I’m not crazy!” Graeson shouted.
Dani placed her hand on her hip, her head hung to the side as she peered at him.
“I’m not. You didn’t—” Graeson groaned, digging his fingers into his hair. “You didn’t see her, Dani. Something is wrong with her.”
Dani pointed to her head. “Yeah, her mind.”
His hands flew into the air, a smile stretching across his face. “Exactly!”
“And that’s a good thing?”
He squeezed a ball of air in his hands as if the action could force Dani to understand. “Don’t you get it? It’s hermind, Dani. She’s not in control of it!” The words tumbled out of his mouth in a rush.
“Graeson.” And suddenly, he hated the sound of his name. Dani took a wary step toward him. “Think about what you’re saying.”
