Cassian POV
I had been punched before.
Broken ribs.
Dislocated shoulders.
The usual consequences of growing up training among monsters.
But nothing—nothing—had ever hurt like hearing Alistair say:
"I held her when she died."
The words hadn't been meant for me.
Yet they gutted me clean.
Thalen did not react outwardly.
But the air around him tightened.
Alistair had gone still, jaw clenched, eyes bright with a savage kind of grief.
The guards watched us from a distance, hands on their weapons, waiting for the moment we lost control.
I didn't move.
Couldn't.
Sarafina's voice was still echoing behind the ward, muffled but clear enough to break something in me.
Cassian?
She heard everything.
And I deserved that pain.
Thalen finally spoke, his voice calm but edged.
"Enough. Both of you."
Alistair shot him a look sharp enough to slice open the ward.
I took a breath that trembled far more than I wanted it to.
"Thalen," I said quietly, "let me speak to her. Just me."
