The dust motes danced in the shafts of light cutting through the empty boutique, the only movement in a room that had suddenly become a tomb. Madam Valeska stood in the grand entrance, her presence a cold shadow that seemed to suck the warmth from the pale stone walls.
For a long heartbeat, no one spoke.
"Madam Valeska," Verona said, breaking the quiet. She didn't move from her position in the center of the room, her chin tilted at an angle that forced the older woman to come to her. "What an unexpected surprise to find the Empire's busiest needle wandering so far from her atelier."
