ELIN SHOOK HER HEAD, sobbing harder. "You don't know what he'll do. If he finds me missing, it'll be worse. For me. For everyone."
Mailah's throat tightened, her fury barely containing itself. "So what—you'd rather let him drain you until you're nothing? Because that's what's happening, isn't it? You're chained to him like a—" She bit down on the word slave, but the silence said it anyway.
Elin crumpled. "He needs me. He said he needed me."
Mailah's chest ached.
She wanted to shake her, to scream at her, to demand she see the truth. But instead she pulled Elin into a rough embrace. The girl was so slight in her arms, trembling like a bird trying to convince itself its cage was safe.
Her own dizziness returned, but she held Elin tighter. "Then maybe he needs you more than you need him. And that, Elin, is your power. Don't give it to him so easily."
The woman sobbed into her shoulder. "I don't know how."
