Chapter 129

Dane The room felt strange—too empty, too clean. I stepped in, the heavy oak door thudding shut behind me, and stood alone in the middle, boots cold on the stone floor. The place was absolutely sparkling. It was clean. The guards had scrubbed it clean of blood, bodies, and all signs of the night's chaos. Bolt torchlight now added soft shadows along the walls, but my eyes were fixed on one point: on the spot where he fell, neck opened wide by Lusia's desperate thrust. Polished from his blood-soaked form, the stone waxed gleaming, yet I could still see it—blackening from under him, with slow-motion life leaving him and his twitching empty palm remaining one last time. Gritting my teeth, I tried hard to stare until the truth would rise from the cracks. Who was he? What had Kiara promised him? The questions gnawed at me, sharp and relentless, while the floor beneath was a mockery of silence. A flicker of movement brought me back from the abyss—a shadow darted fast and fleeting past the doo