ELIA
Elia's heart was still pounding, but her tears were waning. "Tell me," she said, taking Jayah's free hand in hers. "Please tell me. I want to be strong."
Jayah twined their fingers, then sighed. "True weakness does not come from the circumstances you are in, or your ability to meet them."
"I assure you that it does," Elia said dryly. "When you're weak and someone else is strong, they can hurt you and you can't stop them." Her mind flickered back on the moments when she'd been in the hands of Lucan and Lucine. When the wolves had tried to attack her in the forest.
"That is true, of course. But that is not the weakness I mean," Jayah said patiently. "I'm talking about the weakness of the mind—which leads to weakness everywhere else. When we meet things we don't understand, or are unknown. Or when we simply fear what we know might occur… there are only two options for response.
