Sera's Pov
Velka turned slowly, her dress billowing with the motion, the dagger still buried in her back like a grotesque ornament. Her eyes, once gleaming with what seemed like omnipotence, now widened in a rare moment of shock. She looked at Kael, who stood just a few feet away—expression unreadable, blood smeared on his jaw, probably from his fight with Lucian, his second blade glinting in his hand.
Her voice, when it came, was too calm. Too still.
"Did you miss your target?"
Kael tilted his head. "If I missed anything," he said, voice low, "it's because the dagger didn't go through your heart."
The air thinned. Magic hummed between them, dangerous and volatile.
