She glanced at the desolate landscape—sand dunes painted red with demon blood, the skeletal remains of corrupted outposts scattered across the horizon.
"I did this."
His voice carried a simple statement of fact.
"I exterminated everything in a seven-hundred-kilometre path because they threatened something I cared about."
"Do you really think your secrets, whatever they are, could change how I see you?"
Jasmine's shoulders trembled slightly.
"You say that now. But when you know who my father was... when you understand what my family name means..."
Family name...just who could her family be?
"Try me."
The challenge hung between them like a blade balanced on its edge. Everything they'd built together, trust, partnership, balanced on whatever came next.
She's terrified. But of what?
Jasmine closed her eyes, internal struggle playing across her features. When she opened them again, something had changed.
"My father was—"
Your father was…?
