A few seconds of silence—silence that stretched and warped, that felt like hours—hung between the people clustered around the working table, weighed down by the ghastly sight they had just witnessed.
No one moved. No one spoke. The hum of the equipment seemed louder now, obscene in its normalcy.
Zane, for one, couldn't comprehend what he had watched.
Gianna had been abducted.
The realization refused to settle, skittering through his mind like something feral.
For what? Why?
His gaze remained fixed on the frozen frame on the screen, on the terror etched across her face, the way her slender fingers had trembled as she raised her hands.
That raw fear, unfiltered, punched straight through him. Shame almost enveloped him, for thinking she was with Noah.
Almost… because the fury won.
His fists balled at his sides. How dare they?
The question burned, furious and helpless, before his thoughts were shattered by Athena's voice, sharp and steely as a blade.
