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“You look tired”
Solana startled at Alistair’s voice behind her. She’d come up this hill to be alone with her thoughts, but even that seemed too much to ask. Bare branches clattered overhead. An owl hooted.
She wrapped her arms around herself. “All those years I dreamed of life outside the Circle… I thought it would be better, like in the stories. Is this really all there is? Death, suffering, selfishness?”
He rested a hand on her shoulder. Warmth spread out from his touch, stirring something in her belly she had no name for.
“No. That’s not all there is.”