The scent of blood still remained on Aveline's clothes. Her head was still banging from the ambush, her ribs ached from the fight, but nothing compared to the deeper wounds inside her, betrayal, uncertainty, and the heavy weight of an impossible decision. She looked deluded and confused but still aware she had just been caught by some set of people sha wasn't totally aware of.
She sat in the small lighted tent, wrapping a strip of cloth around her arm, trying to ignore the cold dread tightening around her chest. The war was no longer just a threat. It was happening. She had failed.
The letter from Gabriel's mother, the truth buried in prophecy, it no longer mattered. Words had lost their power. Only blood would be heard now. She realized their was no longer a hiding place or denying the fact that war was inevitable.