~Dahlia's POV~
The silence in the room weighed more than a hundred dead cattle. It settled above us all like a cloak made from the finest of quilted wool, suffocating me.
But what was worse was the look on Elodie's face. The shock. The pain. The betrayal.
She glared at me as if just seeing me for the first time, and even though I didn't know her so much, that look in her eyes seemed to hurt me intensely. It was so much that I could barely breathe.
My eyes snagged to Kai's who still seemed as though in a daze, and with trembling lips, I muttered the only thing I could. "Stop him."
At first, he was stunned into silence— into stillness if I may add— and then he turned to face the guard by the door, his voice tight and cold as he commanded; "Stop him."
Elodie froze. "Why?"