For several seconds after the voice disappeared, nobody moved.
The single word it had spoken continued to hang over the battlefield like an invisible weight.
Oh.
That was all.
No explanation followed.
No congratulations.
No new creature appeared from beneath the ground.
Nothing.
The silence that followed was almost more unsettling than the battles they had just survived.
Liam stood with one hand resting against his injured side, his fingers pressing lightly against the fabric covering the wound Irina had frozen earlier. His breathing was steady, though every now and then a faint crease appeared between his brows whenever the pain sharpened. Around him, the others were still trying to understand what had just happened.
They had broken the battlefield.
At least, that was what it looked like.
