Ezekiel turned his head slightly and looked at her.
For a moment, he didn't answer.
Then he let out a small breath that almost sounded like a quiet laugh.
"I won't do that."
Viola frowned faintly.
"What do you mean?"
Ezekiel shifted his gaze back toward the ocean.
"If I run and leave you behind…"
He paused.
"…then what difference would there be between me and the people who abandoned me to die in that dungeon?"
His voice remained calm.
Too calm.
But the weight behind his words was unmistakable.
Viola's breath caught in her throat.
She had seen it.
Everything that had happened to him in that dungeon. The moment he had been surrounded, wounded, and left behind by the very people who were supposed to fight beside him.
People he had trusted.
People who were supposed to be his allies.
She had witnessed it all.
Yet hearing him say it so plainly still made something tighten painfully in her chest.
For a moment, neither of them spoke.
