Sebastian's POV
I sat in my chair for a long time after.
Claire had gone inside. Cassandra had gone inside. I had stayed in the garden for ten minutes with the cold air and the rosebushes and the quiet and I had tried to understand what had just happened. Not the events of it. The events were clear enough. Claire had gone there with intent. Cassandra had defended herself. The blood on her palm had been the rosebush, not Claire's hands, but it was close enough that the distinction felt thin.
What I was trying to understand was the speed of my own certainty.
I had looked at the two of them and I had known. Without deliberation. Without asking a single question. I had known who was telling the truth and who was performing it, and I had acted on that knowledge without a second of hesitatio
