child in stunned silence.
Then Thessian turned to Liora.
The guards holding her visibly trembled.
When he took her from them, he gathered her with a care so precise it made the violence done to her seem monstrous by contrast.
Her body sagged into him without awareness.
His hand moved once through her hair.
Then to her face.
Checking warmth.
Breath.
Life.
And when his fingers brushed her broken wrists—
His jaw locked.
No one in the square breathed.
Because something vast and murderous had entered the silence.
Marcus looked at Liora then.
Properly.
And whatever he had known before—
He had not known this.
Even he looked altered by the sight.
One of the ministers began speaking too quickly, desperate now.
"She lives—"
The words died under one glance from Thessian.
A glance so cold it made the man physically recoil.
Thessian lifted his eyes.
Looked over the officials.
The guards.
The men who had thought bringing damaged bodies would end pursuit.
