[ He took her hand off his chest and let it go, just like that. Her hand lingers in the air between them, unmoored, before it drops down to her side. Her expression crumples like tissue paper, but she doesn't move back or step aside. ]

Would it be so bad to have someone come who can finally end the Fold? To help save hundreds of thousands of Ravkan lives -- not Grisha, just innocent, human [ the word is a whip, a lash against him, a sharp mockery of his continued denial of her right and the right of her people to exist ] women and children? Tell me you're not that hard-hearted.