Chapter 92 – "Blood Between Us" (Part II)
The silence after Auren's challenge was the kind that preceded executions.
Arin could hear her own pulse. Could feel it hammering against the obsidian serpent on her throat, the cursed thing warming like it was feeding on the chaos. Every pair of eyes in the throne room had sharpened to a point, and every one of those points was aimed at her.
This is what they see, she thought. A border girl standing between two princes who should know better.
Caldan hadn't blinked. His molten eyes were fixed on Auren with the kind of focus she'd only seen him give a blade—right before he drove it into something.
"I won't ask again," Caldan said. Low. Quiet. The kind of quiet that made the air feel thin.
Auren didn't move. His jaw was set like iron, his golden eyes burning with something that went deeper than defiance. He stood his ground the way men stood on the edge of cliffs—knowing the fall, choosing it anyway.
