He turned to look at her then, and his eyes held command of her world in that moment. “If you wish to live,” he said quietly, “you will come with me.” If you wish to live. So obvious the choice seemed until, all of a sudden, it wasn’t. Lan thought of the crumpled body of her best friend, torn open from the inside out. Heard the screams coming from somewhere down the hallway, the songgirls dragged into this carnage, flowers swept into a winter storm— Did she wish to live? How many lives was hers worth?
