# Chapter 80 – The Breaking Point
*Nanisa's POV*
I watched it all through the scrying crystal, my fingers gripping the obsidian surface so hard that cracks began to spider outward from where my nails pressed against the stone. The Shadow Council's war room was silent except for the soft hum of magical energy and the sound of my own ragged breathing, but in the crystal's depths, I could see the forest clearing where everything had gone so catastrophically wrong.
Commander Thorne was on his knees, his weapon discarded, his hands pressed against a bullet wound in Vanessa Torres' chest. The woman who should have been captured or killed was instead surrounded by people who'd come to hunt her—and they were all trying to save her life.
