A Crown of Star and Ash (The Fate of Ashes #1)

by Victoria K. Taylor

“I am not a fighter,” she said, smiling at him grimly. “But I would have stood against it. I know I would’ve. But the obedience that has been drilled into me stops me every time. I feel sick at the thought of betraying them, even though I know they have betrayed me. So why do I still feel any shred of loyalty?” Rayner did not react. She worried whether she had said too much. But then, he spoke. “You were brainwashed your whole life,” he said. “Forced to believe their dogma and their lies, punished when you questioned or disagreed. It is not loyalty you feel, Deya. It is fear.”