(Bradley)
Bradley watched her go, his body a statue in the temple's arched doorway. He stood there long after the car disappeared, until the only evidence of her presence was the ghost of her scent on the air and the hollow ache in his chest. He took a deep, shuddering inhale, trying to capture the last phantom traces of her, the memory of the vibrant s***h of her red hair against the temple's gray stone, the fire in her eyes even as she had pronounced their end. His Freya. Gone.
He finally forced his legs to move, turning back into the dim, sacred space with the heavy, reluctant gait of a man walking to his own execution. The main chamber was now empty, the Severance Altar humming softly, as if sighing after the violent energy it had just channeled. He passed through the outer antechamb
