The Echo-Gem hit the floor in three pieces.
The Chairman's laugh died with it — that smug, self-satisfied sound that had filled the room like smoke — and what replaced it was silence. The kind that presses against your ears. The kind that means something has changed, and there is no going back.
I looked at the shards for exactly two seconds. Then I looked at Julian.
He was still breathing hard, his chest heaving like a man who had just jumped off a cliff and was only now realizing he hadn't checked how far down the water was. His eyes were wild. Defiant. Scared.
I walked toward him slowly, my boots clicking on the stone floor in a rhythm that felt, even to me, like a countdown.
"You think they'll protect you," I said. My voice came out quieter than I intended, which somehow made it worse. "The Iron-Bank. You think because they smiled at you and made promises, that means something."
"They swore—"
