With a burst of absolute fury, Roland hurled the crystal goblet against the stone wall. It shattered into a thousand jagged needles, splashing the dark crimson wine across the masonry like fresh blood.
"Damn it! Damn it all to hell!" he roared, his chest heaving violently as he kicked a mahogany chair, sending it crashing into a display cabinet. "Someone intervened! Someone pulled that bitch out of the wreckage before the smoke could finish her!"
Serene watched him from her seat, her expression masked in a terrifying, calculated coldness. She didn't flinch. She simply sat there, a frozen statue of nobility, watching him dismantle half the room with the predictable, mindless violence that had always defined him.
When his tantrum finally slowed, leaving his breath ragged and his hands trembling with residual adrenaline, Roland locked his bloodshot eyes onto her. He stormed across the ruined floor, stopping mere inches from where she sat.
