The crowd stared at Evelyn, stunned into silence. They looked at each other with wide eyes, disbelief sinking slowly into horror.
"You… you brought them here?" one man rasped with a voice hollow with betrayal. He looked down at the ashes in his hands, the remains of his home, his family. "You let our children die?"
"Why?" a woman cried. "Why would you do that to us? We trusted you!"
But there were still a few who did not believe Evelyn could do this. Her family had been helping the villagers recently when the witches had attacked them. She was nothing but kind.
"Had she scared you to accept it? My lady, we will protect you." came the worried voice but even they felt the look in Evelyn's eyes was strange and eerie.
Evelyn's gaze swept over them, her lips curling into something that might have once been a smile, but now looked jagged and wrong. She was no longer trembling, no longer hiding. Her voice was sharp and cold.
