Reya did not see the shift.
Did not feel the temperature drop.
She lifted both hands slightly, almost reverent.
"We are freeing them from the government," she said, voice steady but charged. "They are Satan's pawns. They go against God's message. They cage what He designed."
Iyisha felt her heartbeat stumble.
"Are you saying you're going to attack Motherhold?" she asked, the word attack tasting bitter in her mouth.
Reya reached across the table and grabbed Iyisha's hand.
The sudden contact made Iyisha flinch.
"Yes," Reya said.
No hesitation.
"And every gated community like it."
Marybeth's chair scraped back slightly.
Reya leaned forward, eyes bright, fevered with certainty.
"We were not meant to survive behind walls," she continued. "We were meant to go through the apocalypse. To endure it. To rise from it."
Her breathing quickened.
"To become the chosen."
Then something flickered through her. The intensity drained just a fraction.
