The room seemed to shiver when the bond struck her. Lydia’s chest rose and fell too fast, Balder rigid at her side, Fen stone-faced though his eyes flicked between her and the leader as though he could feel the shift in the air.
The leader’s masked head turned, slowly, deliberately, his presence suffocating. Then—
“Out,” he thundered.
His voice cracked through the chamber like a blade.
The Veyrith guards hesitated, uncertain. His second—an armored brute with scarred hands and eyes glowing faint blue—shifted forward. “My lord, it is unsafe—”
The leader’s glare cut him down where he stood. No words. Just the weight of crimson eyes behind that mask, enough to send even his right hand stumbling back.
“Leave. Seal the door.”
The hall emptied fast, footsteps retreating into silence. The h
