There was only the faintest pause after Florian said, "Come in."
A heartbeat.Two.
Florian used those precious seconds to breathe—to force the tremor out of his hands, to smooth the edge of panic from his voice. He straightened, brushing invisible creases from his clothes as if that would steady the storm inside him.
Then the door opened.
Heinz stepped inside.
Florian's breath caught before he could stop it.
It hadn't even been half a day since he'd seen Heinz in the royal office, yet the man before him now looked… different. Worse.
The imposing aura that usually clung to him—cold, sharp, unshakable—was gone. In its place stood someone hollowed out.
Heinz's eyes looked darker than usual, the skin beneath them shadowed with exhaustion. The faint lines near his mouth were deeper now, and his once perfectly composed posture had lost its iron stiffness.
