Cassian POV

Letting Dravina go was the hardest thing I’d ever done.

The crueler truth was this: I might never have released her might have clung to her for the sake of the secret she carried if Malrikarion hadn’t known who she truly was. I could have kept convincing myself she needed my protection, that she needed me. But the woman who needed me was gone.

I saw it in her eyes clear as daylight. She had tasted life without me and she loved it. She had found freedom. She had found peace. ...