Everything in the clearing held still for a moment after Mina introduced herself, like the world was waiting for the next breath. Seraphis stared at the bandaged woman with eyes that looked hollowed out from the inside. Eleyn stood behind her, battered but steady, watching every movement with the focus of a predator waiting for the right angle.
That was when the noise came.
A sharp hiss of air behind Eleyn — too quick, and too coordinated to be anything random.
She spun, but the trio she had knocked around and most probably killed earlier were already in motion again.
"Persistent trash," She cursed.
Two men and the woman she had cracked across the spine, all of them bleeding, bruised, and furious. They still moved in perfect harmony, the kind reserved for high-stakes dancing competitions, but their expressions twisted with the kind of hatred only long-fed grudges could breed.
They went for Eleyn all at once.
