POV: Kaelira
Ronan's face was pale in a way I had never seen on him, and the parchment in his hand shook slightly before he steadied it.
"What happened?" I said, crossing the room fast, ignoring the council members watching me with careful, curious eyes.
"Cormac is dead," Ronan said.
The words landed in my chest like a stone dropped into still water.
"Dead," I repeated. "How?"
"They found him this morning," Ronan said. "In his cell. The guard swears no one entered after midnight."
"That is not possible," I said. "You said no visitors and no messages."
"I know what I said," Ronan said, and the sharpness in his voice was not aimed at me, I could tell, it was aimed at himself.
One of the council members, an older man with a grey beard and tired eyes, cleared his throat. "There is mor
