ELIA
"You say your life is over," Reth began.
Elia coughed. "I don't just say it. Whoever stole me from my world killed me—ended my life—just as surely as if they'd murdered me on the spot. To everyone who knew me, for everything I've ever done or been involved in… it's over. They'll never know where I went, what happened to me. I'll never finish anything I started. My life, in my world, is over."
"And you grieve it?" he asked.
"Of course I grieve it!"
He frowned. "But was it such a life that it was worth holding so tightly? The sacrifices from the humans are selected, it's true—but only from certain situation. You are an orphan. No family. Clearly you had no lover. Can life be full without family or a mate?"
Her mouth dropped open and she gaped like a fish on a hook. "I would have… There was a man I thought... Those things would have come. I only needed time."
