Varkesh knelt there, making no attempt to move.
His expression had gone completely still, locked in place as despair, helplessness, and denial settled into his features.
The denial stood out the most. It showed more clearly than anything else.
Life didn't feel real anymore. Even when Ethaniel had been turned into a monster right in front of him, it hadn't felt like this. That moment had been shocking, but this, this felt wrong in a way he couldn't accept.
For someone like Gwen, someone who had always placed others before herself, to be turned into a monster was a fate so twisted that his mind refused to process it.
His eyes remained fixed on her, searching for anything that would prove he was mistaken.
Anything.
A movement, a reaction. Something that showed the monster looking at him wasn't her at all. That the Gwen he loved deep down had still yet to come out.
Yet the way she looked at him hadn't changed at all.
