Kai stood facing me, determination etched onto his features, though the subtle tremble in his eyes betrayed the storm within. I leaned back against the wall, my hands still in my pockets, watching him coolly.
My gaze shifted briefly to the group of men behind him—some bruised, some visibly shaken, all uncertain. They kneeled as a mass, but I saw them for what they were: thirty lives hanging by a thread, waiting for his word to bind them into something new… or to let them scatter like dust in the wind.
"So," I began, my tone light, laced with challenge, "tell me—what would you like to do to save them?"
