And now, she had severed the tether.
She had untethered his boat and pushed him out into the freezing, lonely ocean, completely abandoning him on the shore of his own lies.
Kaelus looked down at his shattered teacup. He looked at his trembling, tea-soaked gloves.
He didn't yell, demand she speak to him. He didn't try to enforce his authority.
The terrifying Reaper of the North, the man who had effortlessly slaughtered an ancient Elemental Behemoth hours prior, felt a sharp, burning prickle at the back of his violet eyes.
His throat closed entirely.
The pain in his chest was so intense, so agonizingly sharp, it felt as though a thousand poisoned arrows were being driven slowly, methodically through his ribs.
He couldn't sit there.
He couldn't endure another second of her sunny, cheerful laughter directed at his rival while he suffocated in her invisible void.
Kaelus slowly pushed his chair back.
The legs scraped harshly against the stone floor.
