Aveline tried to get the guards, but Aelion stopped her. As she looked, the girl's resistance faltered.
The boys shoved closer.
The girl, instead of fighting or shouting or running, went suddenly still.
Aveline stared, the blood draining from her face.
"This is not right," she said, her voice gone flat with shock. Her eyes no longer looked angry. They looked hollow. "There is no struggle."
"Because there is no point in struggling," Aelion said grimly. "And even the guards will not do anything against the boys of House of Velmora and Terravain."
Aveline's hands curled into fists.
"That does not mean—"
The words stopped in her throat when she saw the boys drag the girl farther away, toward a patch of bushes beyond the path. The girl walked with them without fighting. Not because she wanted to. Not because she had accepted it. But because something in her had clearly learned that resistance only made things worse.
As she passed, her eyes met Aveline's.
