“I was like you once,” she continued. “I believed myself unstoppable, for if someone doesn’t fear death, then nothing can stop them. But there is more than one type of death. I know that now. I went to that place and managed to return. Shame: shame can be far worse than death.” Nora now placed the sharp edge to the akar’s right shoulder and applied just enough pressure to draw only a bite’s worth of blood.
