In her mind, Laila rose above where she sat and looked down on herself: beautiful, young, unencumbered. This girl has only the brightest of futures, and where her past would be lies nothing. She is unstoppable and untethered. She loves no one—or at least, no one still living. Everyone has forsaken her, and she’s forsaken them in return. She has defended her own life and slipped from the grasp of those who would do her harm. She’s done only what she needed to in order to survive. She is the master of her fate, and she regrets nothing.
